Massachusetts paid lawyers $155.6 million last year to represent poor citizens, about 25 percent more than a 2005 law, which was passed to equalize lawyers’ pay with other states, according to the Boston Globe .
This revelation was in spite of a 2005 proposition in which officials attempted to limit the state’s dependence on private lawyers, their fees and who qualifies as a “poor client.”
The law was initially created after private lawyers threatened to stop representing clients if their pay was not raised. The lawyers believed that the pay Massachusetts granted for representing poor clients was significantly less than other states offered.
The state passed the law after judges released prisoners who could not afford a lawyer. The law increased pay for private lawyers from $20 million to $25 million.
However, the Committee for Public Counsel Services has spent more than expected to private lawyers. That amount that is spent increasing every year, reaching about $30 million since 2006. This increase comes despite a small increase in cases.
In order to help reduce this immense amount of spending, Gov. Deval Patrick included in his budget proposal for the coming year a decrease of the state’s dependence on private lawyers. Patrick said that hiring a public defending staff of 1,000 layers as opposed to utilizing private lawyers so frequently will save the state $45 million.
Officials from CPCS, who control the private lawyers spending, argue that the increase is within law and justified to continue the defense of indigent defendants.
“We’ve been ignored by the Legislature when we talk about this stuff,’’ said Anthony Benedetti , chief legal counsel for the agency, to the Boston Globe. “There are systemic problems that need to be looked at in terms of the number of cases and the number of clients. How about you do that before you blow up a system that, by all accounts, is well run?’’
Between 2006 and 2010, the number of private lawyers used by the state has increased from 250,302 in the 2006 fiscal year to 259,405. While in 2008, there was an all-time high of 277,886 cases.
The increased spending has been a result of more complex cases and lawyers are being asked to do more, Benedetti said.
In 2005 the Rogers Commission recommended screening defendants to determine who would qualify, decriminalizing minor crimes, hire more staff lawyers and reduce the number of hours that lawyers can work each year, from 1,800 to 1,500.
“We’re in the middle of a full-blown fiscal crisis, and just saying you have a constitutional obligation [to poor defendants] and you’re spending the money wisely is not a good answer,’’ said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, to the Boston Globe.
“We have an open-ended system that is not sustainable and not fair in the context of the state’s finances, and it needs to be reined in.’’
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