The Tennessee Supreme Court is urging the Tennessee General Assembly to increase the state’s judicial system’s budget in order for it to increase the compensation rate for court-appointed attorneys.
The state’s highest court says “many judges are struggling to effectively administer justice in their courtrooms” across Tennessee, adding, “The state must rely on court-appointed attorneys to provide mandatory legal counsel, but the pool of available attorneys has shrunk considerably.”
The state’s reimbursement rate for court-appointed attorneys has been $50 an hour since 1997 – the lowest in the country.
There are total caps in place for almost all cases, and lawyers are reimbursed at the end of the case, which, as noted by the Supreme Court, can take months or even years.
While the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury is working on reviewing the impact on the court system of the low hourly rate of compensation for appointed counsel in non-capital cases, the Administrative Office of the Courts says it will make a “significant budget request” to support increasing the attorney hourly rate to $80 in its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025.
Specifically, the Administrative Office of the Courts says its request will be “aimed at increasing hourly rates and caps in an effort to stabilize the criminal justice and juvenile court systems.”
Noting how nearly half of all cases with a court-appointed attorney in the Volunteer State are in juvenile court and involve families and child welfare, Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Holly Kirby said, “Paying lawyers such low rates doesn’t make the cases go away. It just means cases are delayed, overturned, or returned to the trial court on appeal. That doesn’t help anyone. Victims are left waiting without justice and are retraumatized by additional proceedings. Children linger in foster care. Witnesses move and misremember, evidence deteriorates. It’s not efficient or cost-effective.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
