"Emergency guidelines" were issued Friday by the head of West Virginia's Public Defender Services, which will cut the amount that attorneys taking court-appointed cases are reimbursed for their time.
Dana Eddy, the group's executive director, wrote in an email to all West Virginia attorneys Friday afternoon that there isn't enough money to reimburse lawyers who submitted vouchers after Sept. 16.
Public Defender Services will ask for an appropriation to cover the rest of the fiscal year (which ends June 30, 2016), but Eddy said he doesn't expect that amount to be sufficient.
Under the new guidelines, which will take effect Jan. 18, attorneys no longer will be reimbursed for mileage and will be compensated $20 an hour for travel time. Previously, lawyers received $45 an hour for travel time, and 57 cents a mile in mileage reimbursement. Time spent "waiting in court" also has been more narrowly defined, among other cuts. In addition to people charged with crimes, court-appointed lawyers often also represent children involved in abuse and neglect cases in circuit court. Rates for lawyers in family court are set by the West Virginia Supreme Court. County public defender offices also are separate.
Eddy told the Gazette-Mail on Friday that it's not unusual for the agency to have to request a supplemental appropriation to continue paying vouchers during a fiscal year.
"What is unusual," he said, "is that we're trying to tighten what we're paying out, to try to make sure everybody gets paid. Everyone has to understand that the state is not in the greatest financial health, and everybody is going to have to feel the pain."
The pain might be a little harder for attorneys to swallow, Eddy said. He already had received complaints Friday about the new guidelines.
The complaints are "mostly due to the fact that court-appointed counsel are due for a raise, and here we are talking about paying them even less," he said.
A Fayetteville attorney responded to Eddy's email, criticizing the guidelines.
"Quite frankly, the actions of Public Defender Services is becoming absurd and shows a continuing and increasing lack of appreciation for what it is that we, as appointed counsel, do for the indigent clients we represent," wrote Anthony Ciliberti Jr.
"It is bad enough that the State of West Virginia refuses to compensate appointed counsel at reasonable rates. However, it is even more troubling that Public Defender Services now appears to be giving appointed counsel even less consideration than our [L]egislature by expecting us to work for clients and not be compensated reasonably. You appear to have arbitrarily and capriciously decided that time that we legitimately expend on indigent clients will not be compensated or will be compensated at reduced rates," Ciliberti wrote in response to Eddy.
Many attorneys who haven't been reimbursed for work after Sept. 16 already have sold their vouchers to companies that give them money up front, according to Eddy.
The agency has been trying to cut out the need for those types of quick-cash companies, which charge a percentage of what the vouchers are worth.
"The problem with that is, attorneys sell their vouchers and don't get the full amount back," Eddy said. "Just out of the box, they are losing 10 to 20 percent of their voucher. On the other hand, we understand maybe they can't wait 90 to 100 days to get paid," he said.
Other guidelines include limiting what administrative work will be reimbursed and requiring more extensive explanations about what an attorney is requesting reimbursement for. The emergency guidelines are to remain in effect until "repealed by Public Defender Services in a document that is published on the agency's website," the document states.
"The agency believes that the guidelines represent an equitable approach to ensuring that all vouchers for services will be paid through the remainder of the fiscal year and beyond in some amount, rather than exhausting the available funds and having vouchers remain unpaid for a period of time," Eddy wrote in the email.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.