Legislature leaders propose pay raise for court-appointed lawyers in effort to end work stoppage
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The agreement unveiled Wednesday includes a $10-an-hour pay raise this year and another $10-an-hour on top of that next year, according to a summary released by Beacon Hill leaders.
The bar advocates have sought $35-an-hour more this year and $25-an-hour the following year. At the lowest rung of pay, the state currently gives the attorneys in district court $65-an-hour.
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It's a constitutional right, as well as state law, for people accused of a crime to have access to an attorney, even if they cannot afford it. In Massachusetts, the more than 2,500 bar advocates typically represent about 80 percent of indigent criminal defendants, with the rest covered by staff attorneys from the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state's public-defender agency.
It's unusual for states to rely so heavily on private attorneys, and that split gave the bar advocates significant leverage as they stopped taking cases. The proposal unveiled Wednesday would add $40 million to CPCS's budget to dramatically expand its ranks of staff public defenders by about 320 lawyers.
The agreement also would add language to bar-advocate contracts that would lay out minimum requirements and state that any future collective action not to take assignments would be an antitrust violation.
The measure will go to the full Legislature for passage on Thursday.
Sean Cotter can be reached at
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