PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A prominent Maine defense attorney accused of overbilling the state for court-appointed work is denying any wrongdoing.
Amy Fairfield is being sued by the Maine attorney general for allegedly misrepresenting the hours lawyers worked on cases to earn a higher reimbursement from the state. Since January 2016, Fairfield & Associates has been paid $6.8 million by the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services.
“We work hard, and we represent people very well,” Fairfield told WMTW-TV in an interview. “I am very confident that I have done nothing wrong, and I will stand up to them.”
Her law firm with 14 attorneys in four offices has taken on roughly 3,000 new cases a year in the past. She said that typically represents about 10% of the state’s indigent caseload.
Maine is the only state without a public defender system. Instead, the state relies on a network of private attorneys to perform court-appointed work.
Fairfield exited the pool of attorneys utilized by the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services in July, when she declined to share office records as part of the investigation.
