Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services

Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy has rejected a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit alleging failures by the state agency that provides attorneys for low-income criminal defendants.

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.

Maine's chief justice is asking more attorneys to represent low-income defendants as the state faces a quote “dual crisis" in the court system.

Members of a commission are asking state lawmakers to return to Augusta for a special session to approve an emergency infusion of cash to the agency that provides lawyers to low-income Mainers.

The number of attorneys willing to take on indigent defense cases in Maine has fallen from more than 400 to just 163 during the past two-and-a-half years.

Communication between a defendant and his or her attorney is supposed to be confidential. But after the Maine Monitor uncovered that nearly 1,000 phone calls between attorneys and their incarcerated clients had been recorded, a new commission was formed to review the issue.

Commissioners and staff on a state panel expressed concerns Tuesday that Maine is failing to provide legal counsel to low-income defendants as demand for court-appointed attorneys coincides with a drop in lawyers willing to do the work.

The $1.2 million approved by the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee will be used to hire five public defenders who would work largely in rural areas, essentially supplementing the commission’s roster of private attorneys.

The ACLU of Maine has scheduled a press briefing for Tuesday morning to discuss what it described as a constitutional challenge to state practices.

The proposed legislation would prohibit recording, monitoring, disseminating or divulging communication between incarcerated clients and their attorneys, and it establishes civil penalties for those who break the law.