Tonza Ruffin has been a criminal defense lawyer for 24 years, and a lot of the time she helps poor people who can’t pay for a lawyer.
North Carolina’s Indigent Defense Services Office ran out of money in June 2016 to pay Ruffin (then a private lawyer) and the hundreds of other lawyers like her who were taking on cases from the court. In the end, the state had to pay them with money from the budget for the next year.
Ruffin said she doesn’t remember that particular pay freeze because she often had trouble getting paid at the time. Still, she said, pay cuts have hurt the defense field, which is already poor.
Ruffin, who is now the top public defender for Bertie, Halifax, Hertford, and Northampton counties, said, “Attorneys can’t live without anything.” “What we see is that private appointed counsel get angry and say, ‘I can’t do this.’”
Eight years later, the IDS office is also facing a lack of money.
According to papers from an Aug. 9 IDS commission meeting, the agency expects its private assigned counsel (PAC) fund to have a budget shortfall of about $39 million by the end of the fiscal year.
That’s because $108 million is projected to be spent on court-appointed private attorneys in fiscal year 2025. Since 2021, PAC spending has been steadily going up.
IDS executive director Mary Pollard said that if things keep going the way they are, the PAC fund might not have any money left by April or May. If that happens, the statewide body won’t be able to pay the private lawyer until July, when it gets more money.
Pollard said, “I’m afraid that if we do have a shortfall in the spring and can’t make payments, we’ll lose the few lawyers who are still willing to do the work.”
Is a budget rescue likely?
Pollard said that the current shortfall is the worst thing that could happen. He hopes that the lawmakers will give more money before the fund runs out.
During the last congressional session, the House of Representatives passed a budget change that would have given IDS more money. However, the Senate did not agree with this change, so there was no final bill that passed both houses.
In the event of a “emergency,” Durham Democrat and former judge Marcia Morey said the lawmakers might be able to give IDS more money.
But Wilmington Republican State Rep. Ted Davis, who is co-chair of the Justice and Public Safety Appropriations committee, said he hasn’t heard of a planned IDS shortage.
When The News & Observer asked Davis for an interview, he wrote, “No need to talk about it until I know that a possible problem actually exists.”
We tried to get in touch with Republican State Reps. Dudley Greene, Charles Miller, and Carson Smith about IDS funds, but they did not answer our emails or calls. They are the other co-chairs of the Justice and Public Safety Appropriations Committee.
Morey, who is on the committee, has also not heard lawmakers talk about giving more money.
Morey said, referring to prisoners’ constitutional right to a lawyer, “It’s not optional; it’s required.” “We have to pay for it.”
Delayed indigent representation
In fiscal year 2024, 48% of criminal defendants in North Carolina’s public defender districts had private lawyers selected by the court. Data from the state’s court branch shows that about 19% of defendants had public defenders help them and about 21% hired private lawyers.
To be eligible for indigent counsel, defendants usually have to be accused of crimes that could lead to jail time or large fines and have low incomes. In the end, judges decide each case by case if the person gets a lawyer from the court.
Wake County Public Defender Deonte Thomas said that if PAC funding runs out in the spring, private lawyers might decide not to take on poor people’s cases, which would put even more pressure on the state’s already overcrowded public defense system.
That could mean that suspects have to wait longer to get a lawyer, he said.
“Justice that is delayed is unfair,” Thomas said. “People who can’t take care of themselves need to be helped.”
Ruffin said that delayed counsel often changes how cases turn out. She also said that having to wait in jail or post bail is so “disruptive” to suspects’ daily lives that they sometimes plead guilty even though they are innocent.
Ruffin said, “That’s really common in places where there are a lot of poor people going through the court system.”
Long-term shortage
Pollard said that a 2025 freeze on PAC funding could make it even harder for private lawyers to take on cases of people who can’t pay for lawyers. North Carolina lost 586 PAC lawyers between July 2017 and June 2023. The most current information, from 2023, says that there are about 1,760 left.
That’s on top of the fact that the state doesn’t have enough defense lawyers. The state court system said last year that less than one lawyer for every 1,000 people in almost half of North Carolina’s counties, making them “legal deserts.”
Ruffin said that pay is one of the main reasons North Carolina is losing private lawyers from its lists of people who need help with their legal problems.
PAC lawyers get $65 an hour for most cases in district court and $85 an hour for most cases in superior court. This is less than many rates in 2011.
The rates for non-indigent defense vary, but Durham private lawyer Dan Meier said they are almost always higher than the prices for indigent defense. In general, misdemeanors cost $100 to $700 an hour, and low-level felonies cost $300 to $1,100 an hour, he said.
Also, PAC rates aren’t just personal pay. The money helps the business pay its rent, hire helpers, buy office materials, and cover other costs. Ruffin said that she often had to save her pay to keep her law firm going.
She said, “I had to make sure the lights stayed on and my assistant got paid.”
Dawn Tutterow, a PAC attorney in Lincoln County, said that the high cost of PAC work and payment delays caused by administrative problems have kept many lawyers off of court-appointment lists.
“Friends in other counties who were on the list but are no longer on it moved,” Tutterow said. “They just didn’t have the money to keep doing it.”
Lydia Hoza, who is the top public defender for Lincoln and Cleveland counties, also said she has seen a change in culture. She said that young lawyers don’t feel as obligated to do court-ordered work because they don’t have any older lawyers to look up to.
A private lawyer at Trapp Law named Tiqeece Brown said that court-ordered work isn’t the only way to help inmates with low incomes. His firm sometimes helps poor suspects who get money from family and friends to pay for a private lawyer.
He said that taking cases as a private lawyer is better because you can handle your cases better. In 2023, Brown graduated from law school. He said that young lawyers often see PAC work as a step between jobs.
He said, “They do get put on court-ordered lists to get their foot in the door, get some attention, and try to make a name for themselves.”
But Tutterow, who has worked for PAC for 10 years, still finds it fun and important to protect poor clients.
She said, “I wish more lawyers would give up their time to do it.”
Expanding public defenders
There are probably more people looking for defense lawyers because there are fewer cases that were backlogged during the pandemic and more electronic proof, like camera footage.
A number of lawyers said they hoped the new public defender’s offices would be helpful.
Hoza’s office opened in February 2022, and her team started taking cases in April. It was fully filled in less than a year.
Hoza told them, “You have to get going right away.” “You have a defense bar in your area that’s almost out of gas.”
The state of North Carolina got eight new public defender’s offices this year. There are now public lawyers in 60 of the state’s counties.
Pollard hopes that the constraints on PAC funds will ease, but she doesn’t know what the “new normal” will be.
Ruffin said that not paying private lawyers for work done by the court would be “tough” for defenders, suspects, prosecutors, and victims for even a month or two.
Ruffin said, “Every county still needs private lawyers who are willing to help poor people.” “The thought of not being able to count on lawyers to help me with my cases is terrible.”