By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 25, 2008

Citing a budgetary shortfall, the Maryland Office of the Public Defender has informed state judges that, as of next week, it will no longer pay for private attorneys to represent indigent clients who the public defender's office cannot represent.

Such a step would "bring the criminal justice system to a grinding halt," said William D. Missouri, chief administrative judge for the Prince George's Circuit Court.

Annually, public defenders across the state refer 10,000 indigent defendants to private attorneys in cases in which there are multiple defendants. A public defender's office, to avoid a conflict of interest, can only represent one defendant in a given case.

The private attorneys are paid $50 an hour, which comes out of the public defender's budget. Now that state budget officials are asking for a $1.3 million reduction in operating expenses, the office can no longer afford that practice, Brian Denton, chief public defender for Prince George's County, wrote in a letter to Missouri.

Missouri said yesterday that he would simply refer all indigent defendants without lawyers back to the public defender's office.