LAFAYETTE, La. (The Daily Advertiser) – The financially strapped 15th Judicial District Court Public Defenders Office, which provides legal counsel to those unable to afford it, could see a cash influx in July.

Meanwhile, many indigent offenders are finding themselves without legal counsel or relying on defense attorneys to volunteer their services.

House Bill 818 passed favorably through the House Criminal Procedure Committee and is on its way to the full Louisiana House of Representatives. It would reshuffle funds from the Louisiana Public Defender Board.

The bill would make certain that 65 percent of the appropriation for the state board is sent to district courts, where 240,000 people come through the criminal justice process.

“We have had some difficulty in getting our state public defender board to recognize that the current 49 percent or so is just not enough to meet our needs,” 15th JDC Chief Public Defender G. Paul Marx said, “and we also know that even with that split, more money must be provided to the public defender segment of criminal justice,”

Financial problems in the 15th Judicial District Court’s indigent defenders office in recent months has left many offenders without defense attorneys.

On Thursday, Judge Patrick Michot found himself practically begging defense attorneys to volunteer to represent offenders in his courtroom Thursday morning.

Of 106 cases on his docket, only 11 were handled by the public defenders office.

Michot was put in the awkward position of asking private defense attorneys, who usually are paid for their services, to represent offenders for free.

“I’m going to have to try to find you a lawyer. I don’t have one yet,” Michot told defendant Joseph Paul Miller Jr., 22. “We’re going to see if we can get an attorney to represent you.”

The lack of indigent defenders created conflicts for some of the attorneys present in the courtroom Thursday.

One attorney with the indigent defenders office was appointed to represent Joseph John Charles Jr., 30, of Lafayette. The attorney said he could not represent Charles because of a conflict that he could not discuss in court.

Since nothing was filed into the record at that point, Michot ordered him to represent Charles.

The attorney asked for a rehearing later Thursday to present additional information, but Michot declined, saying his decision was “in part due to your office’s inability to represent people.”

Fifteenth Judicial District Public Defender G. Paul Marx disagreed with the way Michot handled the situation.

“I don’t believe simply calling out for lawyers and assigning them a case at random is going to solve our problem,” Marx said, “and history shows it actually will slow justice down and risk error and reversals for the mistaken emphasis on trying to move cases.”

Marx said the lack of funding after defenders’ offices around the state saw their budgets slashed is rendering public defense in Louisiana ineffective.

The lack of legal representation for accused indigents will continue until July, when funding is expected to come through with the proposed legislation to redistribute state public defender board money.

Budget cuts over the past five years have forced the 15th Judicial District Public Defenders Office to lay off 35 of its 52 attorneys and impose salary cuts of 20 percent on those who remain. Recommended funding for fiscal 2017 will be $12.8 million — down from more than $33 million

Right now, the office has a backlog of more than 500 cases. Earlier this year, Marx had to sever agreements with attorneys contracted to represent a big percentage of their clients. Without the contracted attorneys, the office had to declare 3,100 clients as abandoned without counsel a few weeks ago.

Defenders in the 15th Judicial District handled 12,264 new cases in 2015. Last year, state public defenders handled more than 241,000 cases.

“The Public Defender Act was created with this vital part of criminal justice at the core of what we do every day, and it is no different in this crisis,” he said.

But the problem is still without a long-term solution, Marx said.

“To date, we know there is a crisis, but we do not have a plan from our state board other than refusing cases and cutting service,” he said. “Many of us around the state believe a change is needed at the state level so that our message to the legislature is clear, supported by data, and convincing by making specific what the need is and where.”