The head of the state agency that provides low-income defendants with attorneys has announced that he will step down later this year after helping to lead the push to overhaul Maine's indigent legal defense system.
When he was hired back in 2021, Justin Andrus was only supposed to serve for a few months as executive director the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services. At the time, the commission was roiled in controversy and accusations of sloppy financial management. And Andrus was brought in to help stabilize and begin making improvements at an agency that the ACLU of Maine and legal experts warned was failing to fulfill the state's constitutional obligation to provide lawyers to defendants who can't afford to hire their own.
Andrus told the commission this week that he plans to step down as executive director by the end of June.
"I'm not running away. I intend to stay in the fight, stay in the fray and serve indigent folks," he said during a meeting of the commission that oversees the program.
Maine is the only state in the nation that, until recently, relied entirely on private attorneys willing to represent indigent defendants in return for compensation. But the number of attorneys willing to take on that work has cratered in the past two years from more than 400 to roughly 160 , leaving some defendants without timely representation. And the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit against the state last year.
But Andrus and commission members convinced state lawmakers and Gov. Janet Mills last year to hire five public defenders to help tackle the backlog. Mills has proposed expanding that program as part of her current budget proposal.
In a letter he sent this week to participating attorneys, Andrus pointed to progress made on several key fronts.
“Two years ago, the MCILS office consisted of three people,” he wrote. “We were scrambling to process invoices and do the best we could to meet the other expectations on us. Today, we are a fully featured legitimate public defense organization. That “we” includes not only those of us drawing a paycheck from the State, but every one of you. Two years ago our future was completely opaque. Today, you will be paid fairly and, with your work and the work of the defenders who have joined us internally, we are much closer to ensuring quality counsel for all entitled to it.”
On Wednesday, commissioners voted to move forward a reimbursement rate increase from $80 to $150 an hour. Funding for the increase was included in the supplemental budget passed by the Legislature and signed by Mills. Andrus told commissioners that 20 additional attorneys have agreed to take on criminal cases in the less than two weeks since news of the increase began surfacing.
“I know of a handful of more who are coming on in the next couple of days," he said. "We have a ways to go but we are already seeing an amazing, amazing change. I want to thank the governor and the Legislature for agreeing to let us do this."
Josh Tardy, an attorney who chairs the commission, credited Andrus with helping increase confidence, transparency and accountability in the indigent legal system.
"He's been an invaluable asset to the commission," Tardy said after the meeting. "I'm proud to have been one of the culprits that recruited him. And when he does leave, he is leaving the commission in a better place than he found it."
The commission is expected to discuss the search for a new executive director in a future meeting.
