More greedy Northeasterners.........

[jesus marion joseph]

First, New Hampshirites were pegged as least free with their wallets, now my compatriots in the Massachusetts Bar want more than $30 per hour to represent criminal clients in court. WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END???


<<< THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING

Court-appointed lawyers seeking higher pay
11/18/2003

BOSTON -- Lawyers across Massachusetts, faced with the third lowest state compensation for so-called bar advocates in the country, are refusing to take court-appointed cases, leaving many poor people without legal representation.

"We have a tradition of protecting the rights of the most vulnerable," said Susan DeGrave, a Springfield lawyer who in July stopped taking court-appointed cases, which used to make up 80 percent of her practice. "How can I continue to work in this kind of uncertainty, knowing that I may or may not get paid for work stretching into the future?"

A group of lawyers have sued the state in Bristol Superior Court, contending that the pay rates for bar advocates -- ranging from $30 an hour for District Court appearances to $54 for murder cases in Superior Court -- unconstitutionally compromise the right of poor defendants to good-quality representation.

Only New Jersey and Maryland pay lawyers less.

Lawyers say a fair wage would be $60 an hour for District Court cases, $90 an hour for Superior Court and child protection cases and $120 an hour for murder cases.

With private clients, the same lawyers charge from $100 to $200 an hour, depending on the complexity of the case.

Last Friday, attorneys organizing the approximately 2,500 private lawyers who represent most of the state's poor confronted Gov. Mitt Romney's chief legal counsel, Daniel B. Winslow, at a forum to demand higher wages.

Winslow, the state official in charge of judicial reform, agreed that $30 an hour was not an acceptable rate, but said the governor had not yet decided what to do about compensation for court-appointed lawyers.

The Legislature has until Thursday to overturn an 18 percent budget cut for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the state agency that oversees the representation of the indigent in state courts. At current funding levels -- the total budget for the CPCS this fiscal year is $80.6 million -- court-appointed lawyers say there will not be any money to pay them after Jan. 1.

Last summer, bar advocates in Suffolk County staged a 1 1/2-day walkout when the state threatened not to pay $15.4 million it owed them. A last-minute legislative appropriation took care of the back pay.

Recently, many poor people have been left without counsel, particularly in Western Massachusetts, The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday. In Hampden County, judges say they are regularly canceling sessions or postponing bail hearings because no bar advocates are available.>>

[Gary Sisco]

Well, hell, you're talking about lawyers, here. Doesn't matter what part of the country they came from. Their favorite charity is always themselves.

Most people would be happy indeed with $30/hour. Even in Massachusetts. That's US$62.4k/year gross for forty-hour weeks. Tough life.

Reminds me of when I was running the homeless shelter and Legal Aid came around to ask us how many times per year did we find it necessary or think it might be for our client population to require lawyerly services, because they were thinking of hiring a full-time lawyer to deal with the issues of Burlington's homeless population. We told them that we couldn't remember a time when we really needed one, thanks; we took care of shit pretty well, on our own.

Never mind. They created and filled the full-time position, anyway. So, now, for ten years or more, there's been a full-time lawyer (60k, full benefits, of course) for hundreds of people who rarely if ever require her services, even for an hour, never mind for a decade.

[jesus marion joseph]

I would agree that 62K per year gross would, on the face of it, seem to be a healthy salary. The problem is that there is no way you could work full-time on appointed cases by yourself (not if you're doing the court part correctly, anyway), there's just too much paperwork (don't forget, you have to bill the state, and you *must* use their billing system) and related organizational stuff that requires at least one extra set of hands, so your 62K gets watered down pretty quickly by overhead.

You *might* be able to get away with part time help, but that's still going to cut into that gross figure pretty deeply. By the time you're done, you might as well be working for the DA's office (where they are guaranteed a minimum $35K plus benes to start), since you'll be making the same money, but without the overhead.

In order to be a litigator, even if you're working solo, you need to look at it as setting up a *litigation business*. It's tough to run a business that grosses 62K, at least in Massachusetts, unless you're living like a monk (which is pretty rare, but does occasionally happen).