Lawmakers recommend keeping $150 an hour pay raise for lawyers and adding a $3 million public defender office.
Samantha Hogan
Samantha Hogan focuses on government accountability projects for The Maine Monitor. Samantha, who was named 2021 Maine Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press Association, joined The Maine Monitor as its first full-time reporter as a 2019 Report for America corps member. She spent 2020 reporting exclusively on Maine's court system through the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Samantha previously worked for The Frederick News-Post, covering state politics, agriculture, the environment and energy, and interned twice for The Washington Post.
LATEST ARTICLES
Maine lawmakers consider making jail phone calls to lawyers free
Proposed legislation seeks to protect defendant rights to attorney-client privilege in jails.
Executive director of Maine’s public defense agency will resign
Justin Andrus will be second lawyer to leave MCILS this year
Ellsworth lawyer criminally indicted for alleged theft from deceased client
Christopher Whalley, who was disbarred in December 2022, is charged with theft by misapplication.
State officials say legal work for poor clients will continue after resignation of top public defender
Nathaniel Seth Levy announced he would depart from Maine’s budding public defender project last Friday.
New public defenders help but don’t fully alleviate court’s troubles finding enough defense lawyers
The director of indigent legal services cautions that five people are not enough to solve the systemic problems.
Gov. Mills includes additional $17 million for public defenders and contracted lawyers in budget proposal
An additional 10 public defenders and tiered hourly wages for contracted counsel included in state budget plan
State courts confront crisis on multiple fronts
Jail recordings of attorney-client phone calls and defense lawyer shortages are among the top concerns.
Ellsworth attorney disbarred after allegedly taking $189,000 from a client’s estate
Friends of a Milbridge man who died in 2018 had sought help since then to get eight $10,000 gifts distributed.
Exiting lawmaker asks U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Maine criminal justice system
Rep. Jeff Evangelos alleges in letter that Maine’s attorney general has blocked reforms as court system collapses.
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