If the cash-strapped public defender council runs out of money, it might have to furlough defenders, which effectively would suspend thousands of criminal cases across the state, council officials say.

This week, state lawmakers continue negotiations over the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council's request for funding in the current-year budget. The House approved the council's $3.6 million request, but the Senate slashed it to $513,000 as part of a spending bill to tide state agencies over until the end of the fiscal year, which runs through June 30.

"The idea of cutting back the council's budget is a shame," Atlanta lawyer Ed Garland told a legislative committee last week. "If the state doesn't do it, it's going to be a lot more expensive when the federal courts take control."

In 2003, Garland and lawyers for the Southern Center for Human Rights filed suit against the four-county Cordele Judicial Circuit in South Georgia and alleged that indigent defendants were not receiving proper representation. The lawsuit was one reason lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to establish the new defender system.

At its board meeting Friday, council director Mack Crawford said it has been unable to pay more than $475,000 in bills to private attorneys defending death-penalty cases. Several capital cases statewide are on hold because no money exists to pay for their defense.

Last week, state Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill (R-Reidsville) said one of his concerns about the council's midyear request is money that the council receives from counties but is not counting as revenue in its budget.

The county fees in question account for $1.4 million of the council's request.

Because the law that established the statewide defender system does not provide enough defenders and support staff to do the job, counties have had to fund more than 300 positions for extra lawyers and staff to handle caseloads in local offices. In return for processing the payroll for those employees and handling their legal training and travel expenses, the council has charged "administration fees" to each county, which amounts to the $1.4 million.

That money should not be counted as revenue, council member Don Oliver said Friday. It should be returned to the counties where the fees were collected.

"If there's not a legal, contractual obligation to do it, there's a moral obligation," said Oliver, who also serves as the Walker County attorney. Not returning the money to the counties, which already pay the bulk of the defender system, would cause irreparable harm, he said.

"If that quid pro quo is gone, you're going to see those extra positions melt away like ice in July," Oliver said. "I suspect lawsuits and injunctions will be filed."

The council also received word last week that its budget is about to be squeezed again. A ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court said that, when a convicted person raises a claim on appeal that the trial lawyer did not provide effective representation, the person must be provided a new lawyer. If the person is indigent, he or she would need to be provided a lawyer.

Nolan Martin, the council's deputy director, estimated that the ruling could cost the council millions of dollars in additional legal fees.

Oliver said Friday, "That's a tsunami that's closer than we think."