News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Court-appointed attorneys across Tennessee are getting an increase in their pay, because rural judges especially are struggling to find attorneys.
Senator Ken Yager said the increase from fifty to sixty dollars an hour should help sessions judges find attorneys willing to work for the old rate. Yager said the change has already been approved for this year’s budget, but they will continue to raise that number to make it more competitive.
“This is the beginning point, not the end,” Yager said. “We will need to continue to do that because you can’t expect an attorney to take a case at this fee. And if my memory serves me, and I am talking from memory, this fee was last changed in 1997 when it was set at fifty dollars.”
Yager said most criminal cases are handled by salaried public defenders but in specific cases a court will appoint an attorney through the Indigent Defense Fund, especially in juvenile cases. He said that although rural counties struggle to keep these attorneys more, the problem is prevalent throughout the state.
“I would say ninety-three of our counties experience this issue in Tennessee,” Yager said. “The two that I mentioned that are Memphis and Nashville, they provide their own services. So it affects all the counties in Tennessee, and it’s probably particularly acute in rural counties who have less resources.”
Yager said that when public defenders are unavailable court cases are at risk of being delayed in getting to trail.
“It makes it difficult to provide adequate representation, particularly in juvenile cases, which is where a lot of the indigent attorneys are appointed, in juvenile matters,” Yager said. “It impacts the ability to provide the defense, excuse me, for in those areas involving juvenile delinquent defendants, and in some cases criminal defendants.”
Yager said they chose to increase the pay rate by ten dollars based on the amount of money they had to put towards the issue. Yager said he heard from a lot of local judges about the growing issue.
