Last month, Maine opened its first-ever public defender’s office in Augusta. This is part of a plan to help with a “crisis” in Maine’s legal system for people who can’t afford a lawyer.
The new office, called the Capital Region Public Defender’s Office, started taking cases on Nov. 27. It will help people who don’t have enough money to hire a lawyer. Four lawyers, including District Defender Frayla Tarpinian, have been hired, and two more will join soon, according to the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services.
The commission is working hard to fix the problem of people who can’t afford a lawyer and don’t have one to help them. Before, Maine relied on private lawyers who agreed to work with the commission for low-income cases. But during the COVID pandemic, fewer lawyers were available, and the number of cases kept increasing.
Last year, the ACLU of Maine filed a lawsuit against the commission, saying the state was not giving enough legal help to people who couldn’t afford it. Recently, both sides agreed to make changes, like adding more public defenders, but a judge still needs to approve it.
To tackle the problem, lawmakers have created more than a dozen public defender positions in recent budgets. The commission is asking for $9 million from lawmakers to open six new offices for public defenders over the next few years.
The plan includes using about $3.2 million to open offices in Bangor and Aroostook County next year and cover other costs. They also want an extra $5.7 million in 2025 to open four more offices in Cumberland/York counties, Hancock/Washington counties, Androscoggin/Franklin/Oxford counties, and the midcoast region.
Jim Billings, the Executive Director, explained that they wanted to be realistic about the time it would take and the resources needed. The goal is to do about a third of the work in-house and use a hybrid system that makes sense for everyone involved.
