The Erie County Court of Common Pleas is receiving additional funding to help retain lawyers who represent impoverished clients.

Erie County Council has approved the allocation of $800,000 in American Rescue Plan funding to the local courts.

As it stands right now, the Erie County Public Defender's Office as a contract with 24 lawyers, who take on cases when there is a conflict of interest.

The money will be used to pay for the health benefits of those lawyers, which is something that has not been done before.

"I can tell you that attracting and maintaining good legal counsel has been a challenge for quite a long time," Erie County District Court Administrator Bob Catalde. "The existing attorneys we have right now are very good, but they don't get paid a whole lot of money and it's very difficult for us to ask them year in and year out to keep doing this type of work."

The money will also allow court appointed lawyers to hire investigators and expert witnesses.

"We are going to be able to provide these attorney's some additional money in the budget to properly represent their clients through expenses that are typically associated with investigations," said Catalde. "As it stands right now, with the contracts, they don't have that ability and that really is an important part of proper representation to be able to do a proper investigation and hire the right type of experts to help in the defense."

According to Catalde, the courts have had a hard time retaining these laywers due to high case loads an low pay.

"We are constitutionally required to provide good representation to the indigent population of Erie County," said Catalde. "The public defender's office, the district attorney's office, we are all struggling to attract and retain attorneys and to say we are at a crisis point, is not an overstatement. It's where we are at. This is a necessary move."

The funding is only for 2024.

Catalde says the courts will work with Erie County Council and Erie County Executive Brenton Davis' Administration to secure additional funding.

"One of the biggest challenges in 2024 is to continue to work with council and the administration to show them we are committed to look for new revenue streams and to find ways to cut expenses," said Catalde. "This is for one year, so we're going to need to roll up our sleeves and continue to work hard to make this happen year after year."