More than 1,300 people in Massachusetts have gone to court without a lawyer since last month due to a shortage of court-appointed attorneys, according to the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees legal representation for criminal defendants in Massachusetts.
On May 27, private attorneys who are paid by the state to represent indigent defendants stopped taking on new work, citing low wages. The attorneys, known as “public defender bar advocates,” typically make about $65 an hour in the commonwealth, the lowest rate of any state in New England.
CPCS has called on the state’s highest court to implement the Lavalle protocol. Named after a 2004 Supreme Judicial Court decision, Lavalle requires the state to release pretrial defendants who aren’t assigned a lawyer within seven days of their detention. After 45 days without representation, their cases would be dismissed…