Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Bar Association's criminal justice section has dropped its bid to win support for legislation aimed at providing needed funding for indigent defense counsel at the expense of the Jenkins Law Library.

The section had been seeking support for a bill that aims to redirect revenue given to the Jenkins Law Library so that Philadelphia, which funds conflict-counsel, could in turn provide roughly $2 million in additional funding to the city's indigent defense attorneys. However, after pushback from the law library and other groups within the bar association, the criminal justice section has opted not to bring a resolution seeking the bar's support for the bill to the full board of governor's meeting set for Thursday.

According to attorney James Berardinelli, who is co-chair of the bar's criminal justice section and has been a leading voice in the fight for additional funding, efforts are still underway to provide adequate funding for indigent defense counsel, but the section is still considering other funding arrangements.

“I hope we can broker some sort of resolution that all the parties can somehow agree on, so we're trying to get a little more time to do that,” Berardinelli said. “That's our hope.”

What impact the section's decision to drop the resolution may have on the legislation moving its way through the state General Assembly was not immediately clear Wednesday.

Late last year, state Rep. John Taylor, R-Philadelphia, introduced House Bill 1937, which proposed taking 67 percent of the court filing fee revenue normally given to the Jenkins Law Library and redirecting that money into the First Judicial District's general fund operating budget. Since the city, and not the court, is responsible for paying indigent defense counsel, the legislation is meant to be part of an agreement where the city would reduce the amount it would otherwise give to the FJD, so it can instead use that money to pay the court-appointed attorneys.

The proposal, however, met strong pushback from the Jenkins Law Library and many supporters in the legal community.

Earlier this month, many high-profile attorneys and former bar association chancellors signed onto a letter written by Jenkins Law Library president Theodore “Ted” Simon opposing the bill. In the letter, Simon said small firms and self-represented litigants depend on the law library for access to resources like LexisNexis and Westlaw, and that cutting the funding “threatens the library's existence.”

Simon said Wednesday that the voices of the library and its many supporters have been heard.

“The voices of eight past chancellors, numerous prominent Philadelphia lawyers, bar members and over 500 co-signors of our letter of support requesting the bar not to support the proposed bar resolution and opposing the house bill seeking to cripple Jenkins have been heard,” Simon said in an emailed statement. “On behalf of our 6,500 members and the thousands of self-represented litigants, we are thankful and grateful to the vast and diverse group of committed Jenkins users, members and supporters who stood up.”

Taylor said Wednesday that he plans to continue pushing for the legislation unless the court or the city officials tell him otherwise. The irony of the situation, he said, is that both groups provide services for indigent defendants, but he said he and city officials have not seen documentation outlining how the cuts would impact the library's services.

“They need to show them to the city as quickly as possible,” Taylor said. “They're in a budget crunch, and they have to make it up some place.”

For years court-appointed attorneys have struggled with low pay, long payment delays and, in some instances, having their fee requests slashed after providing the services. Last year, the FJD raised rates for indigent defense attorneys for the first time in nearly 20 years. The increases were estimated to add between $4.5 million and $5 million to the nearly $9 million that the city appropriates annually for counsel fees.

According to sources, the city has already come up with about $2.5 million to foot the first stage of raises. HB 1937 aimed to provide the rest of the funding for the second phase of the fee increases.

Along with the library's letter, there was also some pushback from within the Philadelphia Bar Association, with the bar's solo and small firm management committee voting against a resolution seeking support for the bill, and the delivery of legal services committee deciding not to vote on the resolution. Instead, the DLS committee, which is part of the bar's Public Interest Section and includes directors of more than 30 nonprofit legal aid nonprofits, issued a position statement, saying that the proposed legislation diverts “core government responsibility and places this burden on the limited resources of a nonprofit organization, Jenkins Law Library.”

“This proposed funding scheme also creates an untenable tension between the needs of Philadelphia's nonprofit community and the needs of court-appointed counsel,” the committee's statement said.

Berardinelli, speaking Wednesday, said that, although nothing had been set, he hopes to set up a meeting with the law library to discuss possible ways to resolve the funding issues.