Limestone County tables proposed raise for court-appointed attorneys after budget questions

Limestone County commissioners discussed a proposal to raise the flat fee paid to court-appointed attorneys handling mental-health cases and voted to table the proposal to the next meeting so staff can compile budget figures and district judges can be consulted.

The presiding official recommended increasing the county flat fee for mental-health-related court appointments from $500 to $750, calling the work "a lot more than a normal" appointment and noting one local attorney has been handling most of those cases. "I'm going to recommend that we, when it comes to mental health that we raise it from 500 to 750 as a flat court appointed fee," the presiding official said.

Another commissioner urged checking with district judges and county budget data before finalizing a change. A different commissioner said higher rates are common elsewhere: "1,750 is probably even still light for some other counties," he said. Staff told the court they would retrieve spending figures to compare last year’s expenditures with the budget.

Commissioners discussed whether the district judges must sign off on a countywide fee change and whether the increase would apply only to mental-health appointments or to all court-appointed cases. Because of those questions and uncertainty about available funds, the court approved a motion to table the item to the next meeting.

Next steps: staff will compile expense and budget data for the county's court-appointed attorney payments and the item will be returned to the next agenda for further action and possible coordination with district judges.