Court-appointed lawyers and their clients face fallout from government shutdown, funding crisis

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The longest U.S. government shutdown in history is officially over, but the fallout will continue to hit two groups particularly hard for months to come: federally funded defense lawyers and the people they represent.

Thousands of court-appointed lawyers, known as Criminal Justice Act panel attorneys, along with paralegals, investigators, expert witnesses and interpreters, haven’t been paid since June after federal funding for the Defender Services program fell $130 million short of what the judiciary requested and ran out July 3. They had been told they would receive deferred payment once Congress passed a new budget, but as the government shutdown dragged on, many couldn't move forward with trials or take on new clients.

Nationally, CJA lawyers handle about 40% of cases where the defendant cannot afford an attorney. As many cases have ground to a halt, defendants' lives have been put on hold as they wait for their day in court. Meanwhile, the federal government has continued to arrest and charge people.

“The system’s about to break,” Michael Chernis, a CJA panel attorney in southern California, said during the shutdown. He hasn't taken new cases since August and has had to take out a loan to make payroll for his law firm.

Unpaid defense team members in several states said they had to dip into personal retirement savings or turn to gig work, such as driving for Uber, to support their families.

Panel attorneys should begin receiving payment as early as next week. Judge Robert Conrad, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, said in a Thursday memo that the resolution Congress passed to fund the government through Jan. 30 provided an extra $114 million for the Defender Services program “to address the backlog of panel attorney payments.”

But the crisis isn't over — Conrad has said a spending bill pending for the 2026 fiscal year is still $196 million short and will likely run out of money to pay CJA panel attorneys in June.

Cases paused and dismissed in US federal courts

The problem is particularly severe in the Central District of California, the largest and one of the most complex federal trial courts in the U.S. Out of the approximately 100 such lawyers for the district, about 80 have stopped taking on new cases.

Chernis has a client who lives in Sacramento, but neither Chernis nor a court-appointed investigator have been able to cover the cost of travel to meet with him to discuss the case. The expert they need for the trial will also not agree to travel to Los Angeles to work on the case without payment, Chernis said.

In New Mexico, one judge halted a death penalty case, which are costly and labor-intensive to prepare, and at least 40 lawyers have resolved to not take on new cases even after the shutdown ended if the overall funding shortfall is not resolved.

California's Central District Chief Judge Dolly Gee wrote in an Oct. 30 letter to California Sen. Adam Schiff that the situation had become “dire.”

“These attorneys have sought delays in cases when they cannot find investigators and experts who are willing to work without pay, which has added to the court’s backlog of cases, and left defendants languishing in already overcrowded local prison,” Gee said. “Without additional funding, we will soon be unable to appoint counsel for all defendants who are constitutionally entitled to representation.”

She said judges may have to face the prospect of having to dismiss cases for defendants who can’t retain a lawyer.

Just hours before the government shutdown ended, Judge John A. Mendez in the Eastern District of California did, tossing out a criminal case against a man indicted on a charge of distribution of methamphetamine.

“The right to effective assistance of counsel is a bedrock principle of this country and is indisputably necessary for the operation of a fair criminal justice system,” Mendez wrote.

Defendants' constitutional rights potentially violated

Everyone in the U.S. has the right to due process — including the right to legal counsel and a fair and speedy trial, guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

Critics of the Trump administration have tried to make the case that it is chipping away at the right. Immigrant advocacy groups have made the allegation in multiple lawsuits. Most notably, they cite the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and imprisoned without communication.