The Maine Commission on Public Defense Services has announced its new executive director, Frayla Tarpinian, who will lead the effort to address the major backlog of indigent criminal cases.

The commission is also facing a $13 million budget shortfall and is a defendant in a lawsuit before the state supreme court over the quality and availability of attorneys for clients who can’t afford their own.

But Tarpinian said she is committed to working with the judicial system to find solutions.

“There’s a lot of different issues that have come together to create the situation that we’re in,” she said. “And it’s going to take a lot of work from all the players in the system, to move us beyond this, to get back to a truly functional system.”

Tarpinian said Maine’s system for indigent criminal de

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