State courts have already warned that Maine’s failure to provide counsel to poor defendants amounts to a constitutional crisis, violating the Sixth Amendment. (Stock photo by Greenleaf123/Getty Images)
With more than 400 indigent defendants waiting for lawyers and a $13 million budget shortfall threatening to halt attorney payments, the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services is facing mounting challenges in providing constitutionally required representation.
The state courts have already warned that Maine’s failure to provide counsel to poor defendants amounts to a constitutional crisis, violating the Sixth Amendment. Yet the Maine Legislature underfunded the commission this year, leaving it on track to run out of money starting in April. That means the private attorneys who handle most of the commission’s criminal cases for a reduced rate expect to go unpaid for four months — and some may stop taking cases.
At a meeting Monday, Executive Director Jim Billings said the commission is preparing a supplemental budget request to cover the shortfall and address staffing needs. He noted that the waitlist for attorneys, which had shrunk earlier this year, has climbed back above 400 this month.
“I think there’s a variety of reasons for that, not the least of which is, again, telling people that are doing our work that we may run out of money,” he said.
“Another reason for that is we’ve had some well established attorneys … pull back on the number of cases they’re doing. Also attorneys in the public defender’s offices are at or near capacity, and so they’ve slowed down on the number of cases they’re able to take off the list.”
Maine’s public defense system is still relatively new, and the 33 state-employed public defenders cannot absorb most of the caseload. Instead, the commission relies on private attorneys under contract. Of about 300 lawyers on the roster, between 35 and 50 take on the bulk of cases, while others work part-time. Those lawyers billed about 325,000 hours last year and are on pace for 360,000 this year — exceeding the annual budget.
Because of those costs, the commission will have no funds left to pay rostered attorneys in the final quarter of the fiscal year unless lawmakers approve an additional $13 million.
During the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting, small law firms that take on indigent defense cases warned that the shortfall could force them to close their doors.
“We don’t have an option of not paying our employees,” said Robert Ruffner, director of the Portland-based Maine Indigent Defense Center, which contracts with the commission.
“If any of these small firms are not able to get funding and have to go under, the effect — especially since they concentrate or do exclusively this work — on the list is going to be not recoverable from.”
Christa Vo of the Maine Justice Collective echoed these concerns, noting that the uncertainty has already forced some attorneys to seek other types of legal work, which typically pays a lot more, disincentivizing some from returning to represent indigent defendants.
“When the announcement was made that we may end up with a period of time where we don’t get paid, I decided to start advertising family law,” she said. “But when you’re able to go back to something like family law, where you’re making twice the amount of money, a lot of people won’t come back.”
Both Ruffner and Vo highlighted the unique value small firms bring to the public defense system, providing an “on ramp” for new attorneys and maintaining a high percentage of court-appointed work out of dedication, not profit. But burnout and financial instability are pushing some to the brink.
Attorney burnout high
The meeting also highlighted the results of the commission’s recent burnout survey, which more than 90 Maine attorneys responded to. The commission did a similar survey two years ago and, comparing the results, found that more attorneys were experiencing burnout now than in 2023.
Eighty percent of attorneys who responded said that they feel overwhelmed with work, and the same amount also said that they’ve experienced burnout in the last year, while 52% said that they agree or strongly agree that their feelings of burnout have affected their work.
Almost 60% of the attorneys have contemplated a career change.
Many survey respondents also mentioned that their burnout is being caused by too high of a caseload, and appreciated that Maine has caseload limits in place now. These caseload limits have been criticized by Gov. Janet Mills, who in her 2025 State of the Budget address suggested removing them as a solution to the indigent defense crisis.
“The problem isn’t that our group is not tough enough. It’s not that they’re not capable enough. It’s not that they don’t work hard enough,” said Caribou District Court Judge David Soucy, who serves on the commission. “The problem is the system is not operating in a sustainable way.”
