Montgomery County committee weighs $75‑per‑hour travel pay for assigned counsel amid near‑$1M tab

Montgomery County’s Budget & Finance Committee on Monday discussed a proposed change to the county’s assigned‑counsel reimbursement rules that would eliminate mileage payments and instead pay $75 an hour for travel time while continuing the $158 hourly rate for court time.

Proponents said the measure is intended to prevent attorneys from bundling travel with court time on a single invoice and to reduce what one legislator described as a growing county expense. Committee members noted county payments to assigned counsel approach “just under $1,000,000 a year.”

The draft language circulated to the committee says travel time must be “clearly delineated” on vouchers and that payment is contingent on separate line‑item reporting for travel versus court time; where travel is paid, mileage will not be paid. The proposal would also direct the assigned counsel administrator to investigate instances where travel is billed as court time and, if abuse is found, to initiate removal from the assigned panel.

Members pressed staff on how the change would be policed. The assigned counsel administrator and county auditors were identified as the primary checkpoints. A committee member noted past examples where a single attorney billed several concurrent cases as separate hours, artificially multiplying reimbursements.

Supporters said the $75 travel‑time payment is a compromise intended to restore lawyers who stopped accepting assignments after mileage was eliminated, while also tightening controls. Several legislators requested sample vouchers and asked that the assigned counsel administrator and the county’s counsel be invited to the next committee meeting for a more detailed review before any vote.

The committee did not adopt the change outright and agreed to continue discussion at a future meeting with the administrator and counsel present.