Imagine, if you will, a small business owner working for the same rate of pay for the last 20 years. Overhead has gone up. The cost of living has gone up. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, in the marketplace, average hourly earnings have more than doubled in that time. Sounds like an episode of the “Twilight Zone,” but the sad truth is that it’s not.

The compensation rate for lawyers appointed by Tennessee state courts to represent indigent parties in criminal, juvenile and civil cases has not changed in 20 years. The current rate for court-appointed lawyers is $40 per hour for out of court work and $50 per hour for in court work. At $40 an hour for out of court work, Tennessee court-appointed lawyers are the lowest paid in the nation. Tennessee’s compensation rate for court-appointed lawyers is by far the lowest in the region, with Arkansas’ and Kentucky’s hourly rates more than double the rate in Tennessee.

What’s worse, at $40 per hour, lawyers are the lowest paid professionals appointed by our state courts. Interpreters are paid $75 per hour, investigators are paid $50 per hour, expert witnesses are paid $75 to $115 per hour and doctors are paid $250 per hour: all are paid higher rates than lawyers. The problem is exacerbated by maximum compensation limits for lawyers that can further reduce the effective hourly rate.

Court-appointed lawyers are generally solo practitioners who do this work out of a sense of public service. Young lawyers in particular have historically used court-appointed work to build their practices. Increasing numbers of lawyers, however, are unable to afford to take these cases because of the low rate of compensation. The current rate keeps the number of lawyers accepting appointments low and disproportionately affects rural practitioners. In rural counties, where there are lower per-capita numbers of lawyers, solo practitioners bear the brunt of the financial burden of court-appointed work.

A recent survey of lawyers who do this work showed fewer are willing to accept court-appointed work because the pay is too low and paperwork too burdensome. (See survey results here: https://www.tba.org/node/71416.) The rate is so low and claims so difficult to file that, according to the TBA survey, more than three-quarters (77 percent) of court-appointed lawyers reported not submitting compensation claims for some cases. These cases make up, on average, 13 percent of their court-appointed practice. For many lawyers, the current rate does not come close to covering overhead costs.

Court-appointed lawyers are a vital component of our judicial system. These lawyers do not just represent those in criminal proceedings; many represent children in abusive family situations, ensuring they receive the care they need through the court system. Others represent indigent people in juvenile dependency and neglect proceedings and termination of parental rights proceedings. Still others represent those facing emergency involuntary judicial hospitalization actions. They provide critically needed legal representation to some of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens.

Now is the time for change.

The TBA is proposing legislation to provide sufficient funding and raise the rate for court-appointed lawyers. And we need your support. We need you to join with your fellow lawyers across the state in urging our leaders in the General Assembly to craft a solution to this growing problem. Raising the rate means dollars in the pockets of Tennessean small business owners and would enable many lawyers to hire staff to assist their practices, creating jobs in local economies. The time has come to raise the rate for court-appointed lawyers in Tennessee.
 

Tennessee Bar Association President JONATHAN O. STEEN is a civil trial lawyer with Redding, Steen & Staton PC in Jackson. He is a past president of the TBA Young Lawyers Division and a former member of the Tennessee Bar Journal Editorial Board.