Star-Telegram Article on Sequestration

On August 4, 2013, the Star-Telegram ran an article (available here) about how the sequestration is affecting North Texas attorneys, in particular federal public defenders:

Sequestration, the automatic across-the-board federal budget cuts imposed by Congress that went into effect in March, has led to a shortage of public defenders who represent the poor. To fill in the gaps, the courts are hiring more expensive private attorneys to take some cases, a move that has wiped out some of the savings the government had hoped for, said Jason Hawkins, the attorney who runs the North Texas Public Defenders Office, which covers a 96,000-square-mile region stretching from Fort Worth to the Panhandle.

The U.S. Attorney’s office has also been affected: “The U.S. Attorney’s office recorded a $3 million budget cut for the current fiscal year. Fourteen percent of its attorney positions and 15 percent of its support staff positions are vacant due to sequestration cuts.”

The whole article is worth a read.

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