A public defender in Bangor is representing her first clients, a step toward reducing the number of people who are waiting weeks or even months for a lawyer.
The new assistant defender started work in late July, and will represent low-income people in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties who cannot afford to hire a private lawyer.
She’s representing 10 people, for about 14 cases, Chief Defender Logan Perkins said.
It’s a fraction of the work the office hopes to eventually handle, with a goal of 300 cases at any given time. But that’s dependent on having a fully staffed office with five assistant defenders, and hiring for those positions has been difficult since opening early last month.
It’ll be at least another month before the next assistant defender is feasibly hired, Perkins said.
The state is trying to hire public defenders to represent people who are waiting weeks or months for a lawyer to be assigned to their case. The wait is a violation of constitutional rights, lawyers and a years-long lawsuit argue.
indigent defense shortage
The best case scenario is having another lawyer hired in a month, Perkins said. Part of it is timing, as most spring 2025 law school graduates are looking for a job guarantee for this time of year, something the defender’s office can’t offer.
“Because we’re in such a crisis moment, we’re not in a position to be hiring folks who won’t be able to be licensed for another year,” Perkins said. “Private [firms] can do that. They can look that far out.”
Perkins is also finding that lawyers are choosing to stay in southern Maine, whether it’s because they know the area after law school or they just don’t know enough about the Bangor area and decide they don’t want to move.
“People who have applied, who are interested in the kind of work we’re doing, are just not wanting to move to Bangor,” Perkins said. “That’s a bummer.”
She hasn’t seen much interest in lawyers from established private practices in the state wanting to become public defenders. That was expected, but does add more difficulty to hiring, she said.
indigent defense shortage
One well-qualified candidate from out of state was unable to accept a job because the licensing and admissions process to be admitted to the Maine bar was going to be too slow, Perkins said.
“I don’t know when we’re going to be able to fill our positions but we’re going to keep trying,” she said.
The office is funded to cover 30 percent of the indigent defense cases, with the other roughly 700 cases represented by private lawyers appointed by the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services.
The office was established by the Maine Legislature earlier this year in response to the crisis in the state’s legal system caused by a shortage of defense lawyers compared with the number of pending cases in the court system. It has left defendants increasingly jailed without lawyers, sometimes for extended periods of time.
