Criminal defendants in Maine will now be released from jail if a lawyer is not provided within 14 days, and charges must be dropped for those who have been incarcerated for more than 60 days without receiving legal representation.

Those who are released from jail under this new order will be subject to conditions of release similar to those who are granted bail.

These changes are the result of an order published Friday by Kennebec County Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy.

At the end of January, Justice Murphy heard arguments in a lawsuit filed two years ago by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Maine alleging that the state was doing irreparable harm by failing to provide legal representation in a timely manner.

In this case, the ACLU asked that defendants be released if a lawyer is not provided within 7 days and to have charges dropped if representation is not granted within 45 days.

The Maine Commission on Public Defense Services argued at the time that newly created public defender offices were the solution to this problem, but that they need more time to expand the system.

About a year ago, Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed a bipartisan bill — approved unanimously by state lawmakers — into law that created two new public defender offices serving Aroostook, Penobscot, and Piscataquis counties and added ten new public defense attorneys.

This legislation increased the total number of public defenders statewide from 15 to 25.

“Access to justice should not depend on how much money a person has,” ACLU of Maine Chief Counsel Zach Heiden said in response to Murphy’s order, according to a report from the Bangor Daily News breaking this story late Friday afternoon.

“If you can’t afford an attorney, the state is required to provide one for you,” said Heiden. “This order brings us closer to making that promise a reality for the people of Maine.”

Murphy argued in the order that because Maine has not provided legal representation to all indigent defendants, the state is “in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

“Each [criminal defendant] is still presumed to be innocent under the Maine and United States Constitutions,” the court order said. “And yet many of them remain in custody, without counsel.”

The order also takes aim at the Commission, suggesting that they have argued the system is “‘good enough’ — that the hundreds of Plaintiffs should wait patiently in jails or in the community while on bail until a lawyer is finally provided who might then file motions to dismiss their cases at some undetermined point in time.”

“The Court cannot and does not expect miracles,” Murphy said. “But it is clear that the [Commission and state] have not been prioritizing finding or providing counsel for the incarcerated [people].”

Although the order outlines potential ways that the state can find lawyers to take on these cases, it does not directly tell the Commission what practices it must change or adopt.

The biennial budget proposed by Gov. Mills does not currently contain any extra funding for additional public defender offices as had been requested, and it is reportedly projected that the Commission will run out of money for private lawyers — the primary way that defense is provided to those in Maine who cannot afford it — within the next year or so.

“Those are problems no court in Maine has any authority to remedy,” Murphy wrote in Friday’s order.

The Commission has until April 3 to tell the court how it plans to provide timely legal representation to indigent defendants. At that point, anyone who has been incarcerated for more than 14 days since their first court appearance will be released.

State and county sheriffs will have until April 7 to file a response to the order.

There are 51 cases in Maine where people have waited more than a year for a lawyer, and around 100 people are currently waiting in county jails to be assigned legal representation as of this month.

At the end of 2024, more than 1,150 cases were pending without a court-appointed attorney, including adult and juvenile criminal cases, as well as child protective cases.

An appointee of Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, Murphy has served on the Maine Superior Court since Oct. 2007.