ABBEVILLE, La. — It was arraignment morning at the Vermilion Parish courthouse, the monthly catalog of bad decisions, hot tempers, hard hearts and hard luck. Natasha George, who until recently was one of 10 lawyers defending the poor of the parish, stood before the full gallery of defendants.

“I’m the public defender in Vermilion Parish, right now the only public defender,” she said. “Due to a lack of funding for our district and our office, today we will be taking applications for our service but you will be put on a wait list.”

Over the next hour, a steady stream of people left the courthouse and headed out into the rain, nearly all holding a sheet of paper explaining that as the poor and accused of Vermilion Parish they were, for now, on their own.

“This will just be hanging over my head for who knows how long,” said Leroy Maturin, a 33-year-old drain installer who was facing a felony drug possession charge, and because he had no lawyer, had no court date scheduled for the foreseeable future.