TN General Assembly approves first pay raise for court appointed attorneys in 20+ years

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Court-appointed attorneys in Tennessee are getting their first raise since 1997.

It's a part of a larger push to keep attorneys in the state as the Tennessee Bar Association says TN attorneys are some of the lowest paid in the country.

This month, the General Assembly approved $8.6 million in additional funding to be included in the FY 2024-2025 budget. It will provide an increase in the hourly reimbursement rate of compensation along with a proportionate increase in the current cap on the total amount a court-appointed attorney may earn per case.

According to LawPay, the average U.S. attorney makes around $250 an hour. Before the General Assembly's decision, court-appointed attorneys in Tennessee could only get reimbursed $50 an hour. This raise, will bring them up to $60 an hour.

Originally, the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts pushed for an increase to $80 an hour, but the General Assembly did not approve that much. Despite not getting the full funding, the Tennessee Bar Association says they're still applauding lawmaker and the Governor for approving some of what they say is critical funding. They say the cost of maintaining a legal practice is high and with these low rates, fewer and fewer attorneys can afford to take cases.

Nearly half of all cases requiring court-appointed attorneys are in juvenile court and involve families and children, such as adoptions, dependency and neglect allegations, reports of child abuse, and such.

The association says many of those families can't get the representation they need due to the funding issue before this raise.

The Tennessee Bar Association says they remain committed to working with all agencies to fairly compensate lawyers.