Defense lawyers for needy clients feel squeeze after congressional funding dries up

Source: CBS News

Updated on: August 11, 2025 / 11:24 AM EDT


Washington — Just over a year ago, federal judges, defenders and a group of lawyers who represent criminal indigent defendants gathered at the U.S. courthouse in Baltimore to hear federal Judge Myron Thompson give an address. Thompson, who sits on the district court in Alabama, and the others were there to commemorate the 60th anniversary of passage of the Criminal Justice Act, which ensures defendants who are financially unable to obtain adequate representation in federal criminal cases are provided counsel.

Signed into law on Aug. 20, 2024, the Criminal Justice Act, or CJA, allows for the appointment of private lawyers to represent criminal defendants when a federal defender cannot, and authorizes compensation from funds approved by Congress.

Thompson, who has been on the federal bench for more than 40 years, was one of the first of these lawyers — known as CJA panel attorneys — appointed under the law within 10 years of its enactment, and he recalled being summoned for a meeting with then-Judge Frank Johnson shortly after starting a one-man practice in 1974. During that meeting, Johnson appointed Thompson to represent a defendant, with the trial set to begin the following morning. "I have had a front row seat to the implementation and evolution of the act," he told those assembled, heralding the CJA as "one of the most important pieces of legislation passed by Congress."

Now, less than one year later, the program that pays these court-appointed private attorneys is facing a financial crisis, since it ran out of money in early July because of a funding shortfall. As a result, lawyers who are tapped by district courts to represent criminal indigent defendants are not being paid, and won't be until Congress appropriates more money. Lawmakers are facing a Sept. 30 deadline to pass legislation to keep the government funded.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/defense-lawyers-needy-clients-congressional-funds-dry-up/