New Rules Defining Appointed Lawyer Fees Are Circulated

New guidelines to prevent court-appointed private attorneys from overcharging for defending the poor could save the Los Angeles Municipal Court system up to $1 million a year, Presiding Judge Malcolm H. Mackey said Wednesday.

The new guidelines, compiled by an ad hoc committee of judges in the wake of reports early this year that some lawyers had charged the county for more hours than they apparently spent on cases either in court or out, were mailed to all courtrooms in the system Wednesday.

Under the new standards, an appointed attorney will be able to bill the county for a maximum of $300 a day for time spent in court except in emergency situations authorized by a judge. The prevailing rates of $50 an hour for time spent in court, $40 an hour for out-of-court time and $50 for special appearances will remain in force.

In complex felony litigation, the court may allow up to $75 an hour, but either the judge or the lawyer will have to justify the added charge to the county auditor.

Previously, Mackey said, the auditor who made payments to overcharging attorneys “had a problem because there were no specific guidelines. This will result in a substantial savings, because we have now set rigid guidelines for attorneys.”

Mackey noted that the problem had been somewhat blown out of proportion because “just a very few attorneys” were found to be gouging the county for representing impoverished clients in criminal cases. One lawyer billed the county for 25 1/2 hours in one day.

And, he added, the situation had improved even before issuance of the guidelines because the publicity had prompted the judges to “tighten up substantially” their appointments and billing approvals. He called the publicity and the subsequent revision of the rules “a healthy thing for the system.”

In a speech Wednesday to the Lawyers Club of Los Angeles County, Mackey noted that indigent defense costs have skyrocketed, with the Los Angeles Municipal Court paying out more than $7.3 million to about 700 attorneys during 1984.

He pointed out that only 65 attorneys, however, earned more than $25,000 in one year from court appointments while 560 of them earned less than $10,000 annually apiece.

Mackey also told the attorneys that the county auditor-controller’s office concluded last February that the county could save $3.4 million a year by more extensive use of deputy public defenders and $3 million by expanding the Alternate Defense Counsel System, which began on an experimental basis in Van Nuys and San Fernando.

The latter system, under which the county underwrites a private firm that supplies attorneys at a fixed hourly fee in cases referred by the courts, has been expanded to include Santa Monica and West Los Angeles, he said.

Under the new guidelines for appointed attorneys, each Municipal Court will have a standing committee chaired by the supervising judge to regularly screen the list of lawyers applying for the work.