Defense attorneys speak out about billing issues in Wayne County

(CBS DETROIT) — Attorneys defending some of the most vulnerable among our population say they’re still waiting to get paid by the Wayne County Indigent Defense Services Department.
Some say they have up to $8,000 of billable hours pending approval with no timetable on when that will happen.
“If this system can’t provide what’s requisite in terms of the defense and we can’t reasonably expect what has been set as our hourly rate, then that leaves our clients in the worst positions,” said private attorney Nicole Saady.
Those clients are people who can’t afford an attorney. Saady explained why she’s still active on the Wayne County IDSD roll, even though she’s wary of taking any more cases until she gets paid the more than $8,000 of work she’s already billed.
“I turn down most cases. I just paused a case today. It’s my commitment to my neighbors and to my community,” she said.
Ann Arbor-based attorney Robyn McCoy says she’s out roughly $1,000 and has been inactive with Wayne County IDSD since April. She says issues started following changes in the billing system back in March from event-based pay to hourly.
“Track how long before your case is called and how long are you on the record with the judge. They said something to the effect like there’s going to be added scrutiny in Wayne County as opposed to the other counties because there have been some attorneys who had overbilled,” McCoy said.
CBS News Detroit reached out to Wayne County’s IDSD for a response to these claims but has not heard back. Department director Robin Dillard-Russaw told the Detroit News, “I’m not aware of any attorneys who are owed massive amounts of money. A lot of this refrain about attorneys not getting paid is not true.”
Meanwhile, McCoy says the added scrutiny in Wayne County not only extends the already tedious approval process, but it also takes time away from working on the actual cases just so they can bill properly.
“For number one, it’s about the clients, and you want to make sure they have good representation, and two, it’s about my other brothers and sisters in the law. Some of them have gone inactive, some of them have left, but some of them are still there, and they’re working for free. You want to make sure you have a court-appointed lawyer who’s committed to excellence, who’s going to work on your case,” McCoy said.