More than 95 private lawyers in Oregon who have been appointed to represent indigent defendants in federal court have not been paid since early July and are owed “well more” than half a million dollars for work they’ve performed, according to Oregon’s federal public defender .

With the federal government shutdown continuing with no end in sight, Oregon Federal Public Defender Fidel Cassino Du-Cloux said in a recent letter to the state’s congressional delegation that the unpaid casework is an unprecedented “crisis” that’s “threatening the integrity of our federal justice system.”

When Federal Defender’s Office staff can’t absorb additional cases or has a conflict of interest, it relies on what’s known as panel attorneys to take on cases.

They are lawyers in private practice appointed b

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