TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Report: Tennessee's Indigent Defense System Is at 'Breaking Point'

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Sep 25, 2023

The state’s indigent defense system is at a “breaking point,” a story in the Tennessean suggests. With the lowest indigent defense reimbursement rate in the nation ($50 an hour for non-capital cases), the paper says the funding is “so paltry it amounts to a theft of services from attorneys, who are at regular risk of losing money when appointed to the cases.” The reimbursement rate has only been raised $20 in the last 42 years, despite widespread calls for increases and a 2017 task force recommendation to pay between $75 and $125 per hour. Attorneys and judges interviewed for the story say the low rate is “squeezing the state’s judicial system” leading judges to increasingly rely on less experienced lawyers to handle cases. But even that pool of willing attorneys appears to be shrinking, judges say. Dawn Deaner, former Nashville public defender and current executive director at the Choosing Justice Initiative, says the system is in the worse shape "it's ever been."

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