Commissioners discuss pay raise for court-appointed attorneys

ELYRIA — The Lorain County commissioners agreed Wednesday to look into raising the pay for court-appointed lawyers who represent indigent defendants in criminal cases.

Lorain attorney Michael Camera made the request on behalf of the Lorain County Bar Association. He said the last time the rate was increased was in 1988 and the cost of running a legal practice and just about everything else has gone up.

“Things cost more today than they did back in 1988,” he said.

The current rate of pay is $40 per hour for work done outside of court and $50 when a lawyer appears in court. Camera said the Bar Association would like to see the rate increased to $75 per hour.

Bar Association President Andrea Kryszak wrote in a letter supporting the idea that $40 in 1988 was the equivalent of being paid $80.58 in today’s money.

“Simply stated, the rates currently paid have not kept up with inflation to ensure that adequate legal representation is provided to the citizens of this community,” Kryszak wrote.

Camera said getting good lawyers to take court-appointed cases is becoming increasingly difficult for the low pay they receive for the work. Poor representation for indigent defendants can have an even higher cost because mistakes can lead to cases being overturned by appeals courts that could return the case to lower courts for another round of hearings or even a new trial, Camera warned.

Commissioner Ted Kalo said that the county will spend between $1 million and $1.1 million this year on paying court-appointed lawyers, which is down because the state increased the amount it reimburses the county for those fees.

County Administrator Jim Cordes said the cost was around $1.3 million to  $1.4 million before the reimbursement increase.

Commissioner Matt Lundy said the state should be paying an even larger share of the cost for representing indigent defendants than the 49 percent now being covered.

“The system is broken because of a lack of support from Columbus,” Lundy said.

The county briefly toyed with the idea of creating a public defender’s office in 2011, but the idea never got off the ground and was eventually scrapped. Supporters had argued that such an office might have been cheaper than paying lawyers on a case-by-case basis to represent poor defendants.

Kryszak also wrote that the Bar Association would like to see rates for lawyers handling cases in the county’s Juvenile Court increase as well from the current rate of $35 for work outside the courtroom and $45 for in-court appearances. She recommended increasing that pay rate to $65 per hour.

Whether the commissioners agree to raise a rate remains to be seen. County officials have warned that a lack of funding may lead to cuts this year, although those decisions have not yet been made.

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