Court-appointed attorneys who take up juvenile cases in Virginia are paid worse than their counterparts in the five neighboring states, the Virginia Crime Commission said in a report released Tuesday.
The compensation rates in the state are stingier than in Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, the commission found in a survey of the surrounding states.
Virginia and Kentucky are the only governments that put a fixed cap on court-appointed fees, which is $120 in Virginia. An additional $120 can be paid at the judge’s discretion, according to the report; beyond that a waiver is required. There is an unlimited cap in capital murder cases.
The situation has turned representing poor clients in juvenile cases into essentially a pro bono job, said Betsy Edwards, executive director of the Virginia Fair Trial Project in Richmond.
“It doesn’t take any time to meet the $120 cap in serious felony cases in juvenile court,” she said. “Our contention is this has always been an unreasonable amount of money to pay when you’re willing to be in court three to five to six times per charge.”
In Virginia, children and teenagers are tried in Juvenile and Domestic Relations courts, even for a violent felony, which means that a lawyer is given the more meager pay of a lower court, she said.
Edwards is fighting for court-appointed attorneys defending clients against felony charges in juvenile court to receive parity with lawyers in Circuit Court.
Matching bills introduced in the Virginia House and Senate, from Sen. Ken Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, and Del. Chris Peace, R-Mechanicsville, would allow a court-appointed counsel defending a felony offense to request a compensation cap matching an equal offense in Circuit Court.
Gov. Tim Kaine also has proposed money in his two-year budget to fund the increased compensation, Edwards said.
