Number of private lawyers willing to do court-appointed work in Mecklenburg plummets
After local bar exams, Chief Public Defender Kevin Tully used to sift through applications from new lawyers eager to take on court-appointed work.
But after a recent round of exams: “One application,” he said.
Over the last decade, the number of private Mecklenburg County attorneys offering to represent indigent clients has shrunk dramatically.
- The number of private lawyers willing to represent people facing misdemeanors shrank from 114 in 2014 to 19 this year.
- Seventy-three attorneys agreed to represent people facing lower-level felonies a decade ago, but only 14 were signed up for that work this year.
- For serious felonies, the number shrank from 48 to 14.
Low pay and attorneys retiring are among the causes, Tully said. There’s also a “cascading effect,” he said.
“When you have less people dealing with it — the same amount of work — at some point, people tap out. They either fully tap out or say, ‘Put me on hold. I have too many clients right now.’”
The U.S. Constitution says defendants are entitled to a public trial without unnecessary delay, an impartial jury and a lawyer. Tully’s office of full-time public defenders represents many who face charges, but they also rely on the private attorneys who pitch in.
Now, with fewer people doing the work?
“There’s two ways it can go,” he said. “Either (a case) gets kicked down the road and there’s endless continuances, which isn’t justice. Or it’s forced through, and the result is not justice.”
It’s not good for people on the other side of the law either. Victims and their families could face a rushed settlement or trial.
Reasons for shortage
The state Office of Indigent Defense Services — which oversees and advocates for public defender offices — has long raised concerns about lawyer shortages. It’s a problem statewide.
Last year, the office’s executive director, Mary Pollard, warned that half the state’s counties are legal deserts, meaning there’s less than one attorney for every 1,000 residents. In many communities, the General Assembly has agreed to establish public defender offices.
In Charlotte, which has a public defender’s office, a big problem is pay.
Hourly pay comes out to $65 in district court, which is far less when accounting for overhead costs. A 2019 state study found that when factoring in rent, parking, malpractice insurance and other essentials, court-appointed attorneys made only about $15 of that $65.
Raising pay could help, Pollard said. And though there will always be a need for private, court-appointed attorneys, if Mecklenburg’s public defender office had more staff, it would be able to do more work, she said.
The General Assembly sets pay for public defenders, prosecutors and attorneys who take on court-appointed work.
Many of the latter do it out of a sense of public service, Pollard noted.
“It’s important constitutionally and it’s important to the people in their communities,” she said. “Some of the best lawyers in the state are doing court-appointed work, and they could be making a whole lot more money doing something else. But they’re choosing to do this. We’re really grateful for them.”
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.