Commissioners say legal bills submitted late by appointed attorneys are hitting the budget hard

YORK – For years, the York County Commissioners have complained about court-appointed attorneys holding their legal bills for long periods of time and sending them to the county all at once which creates a big problem for the budget.

​Sometimes, private attorneys are hired to represent defendants if they are found to be indigent and there is a conflict of interest in being represented by the public defender. They are paid by the hour and it is the county’s responsibility to pay them.
The county board has in the past asked attorneys to send the county its bills as cases proceed, as the hours occur, so the payments can gradually flow out and the budgets won’t become overrun.
“Well, the county court got hit pretty hard this past week,” said Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier, as the county board met in regular session. “This week we got a very high legal bill (from a specific attorney) with some of it going all the way back to 2018. This board has repeatedly complained about this. It’s ridiculous how some claims go back that far when we are trying to maintain a budget. We will continue to complain and see if we can get the legislature to work with us to make sure court appointed attorneys don’t just hold all their bills and submit them all at once and that they stay on a regular schedule. We got an $85,000 claim in one chunk here, so there is no way the county court fund will stay within its budget.”