The Commission on Public Defense Services in Maine is losing its executive director.
Jim Billings will leave his position on October 10 and enter private practice, per an email obtained by Maine Public.
Since 2023, Billings has been the state’s public defender service’s executive director.
The commission has had a turbulent few years due to an increasing backlog of clients who are impoverished.
A Superior Court judge earlier this year declared that the state was not fulfilling its constitutional duty to represent low-income defendants.
This year, the Legislature approved a bill giving the commission almost $3 million to hire five additional public defenders, along with a number of paralegals and other personnel.
In the current two-year spending plan, lawmakers also increased the commission’s budget, though not as much as the panel had asked for.
Earlier this summer, Billings told the Bangor Daily News that the commission might not have enough funds to compensate private lawyers who accept cases for clients who are too poor to pay.
