Lawyr.Org

The Maryland Office of Public Defender recently announced it will no longer contract with private attorneys to handle an estimated 10,000 cases annually in which it has conflicts because the office has no money to pay them. The office handles about 200,000 cases per year, of which about 5 percent, or 10,000, involve indigent defendants referred to private attorneys when there is a conflict in their cases. Private attorneys are paid $50 per hour, for a total cost of $4.7 million.