Speaking of a statement of values — it looks like the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Independent lawyers who represent the indigent — like AmberPaw — had been getting stiffed by the state, waiting to be paid for months. She posted here about it. Think about it: You give your life to representing the poor and vulnerable — only to be taken advantage by the state itself.
Well the Globe’s Maria Cramer came knocking and got a good quote from her:
Deborah Sirotkin Butler said her clients have included a 5-month-old boy taken from his mother after she suffered an epileptic seizure in a courthouse hallway and a 13-year-old girl who needed a legal guardian after she witnessed her mother’s murder.
“The cases that we do can be life and death,” said Butler, who runs her practice out of a home office in Arlington. “This area of the law is almost like a vocation and you don’t get respected for that. I put up with it because I can see the pain in the face of a kid who wants to be back with their parent.”
Butler said the state owes her between $4,000 and $4,500.
“It’s not a small amount of money for a 69-year-old widow who has to pay for a mortgage in Arlington . . . and still has kids’ college loans to pay down,” she said.
… And hey presto, the Legislature snaps out of it, pays the lawyers what they’re owed, and creates a reserve fund for next year. Is this enough? I’ll let our resident advocates determine that.
As Jamie Eldridge just posted, a budget is a statement of values. You’ve got to value the most vulnerable — and if they’re going to get justice, they need legal representation. This is not optional, it’s not an afterthought. Our concern needs to start with the poor, the dislocated, the folks that need help. Start there.
I hope that these payments actually come to pass.
I also hope that amberpaw knows how much she is respected and admired here for all that she does.
Gov. Baker signed the Supp Budget – LAST NIGHT. I guess either he cared about the stiffing of indigent defense attorneys, or “all that ruckus” of main stream media, blogs, tweets, emails, phone calls, faxes and letters was heard loud and clear and signing the Supplemental Budget and paying 3000+ dedicated attorneys who provide access to justice and ending the tumult as quickly as possible was an easy – as well as correct – choice. Now how long it will take CPCS to send the requests for payment to the Comptroller and how long it will take the Comptroller’s office to process and release these owed funds remains to be seen. See: COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC COUNSEL SERVICES
44 Bromfield Street
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 482-6212
July 12, 2017
Dear Colleagues,
Last evening, Governor Baker signed the Supplemental Appropriation bill,
Chapter 41 of the Acts of 2017, which provides $25,538,874 for payment of all remaining projected FY 2017 legal services bills. This is great news! We are doing everything possible to expedite the administrative procedures that must take place with the Executive Office of Administration and Finance (ANF) and the State Comptroller to prepare the bills we have in-house for payment. ANF and the Comptroller have been very responsive to our pleas concerning the emergency nature of this situation. If procedures go as planned we hope to be able to begin paying all bills presented in good order early next week.
When we receive a further update from the Comptroller, we will inform you.
Thank you,
Lisa Hewitt
General Counsel
I echo Tom’s comments praising AmberPaw and the entire state public defenders office. Nick Talarico was a student teacher of mine in middle school who became a lawyer and worked at the Boston office. He loved being a public defender. When we reconnected he gave me some great perspectives on the two careers (I choose teacher). I admired the strength of his fidelity to the Constitution and his sincere belief it protected all of us from government and corporate power. Since his untimely passing I miss his arguments and advice, but also worry that there aren’t enough attorneys eager to fill his shoes.
My own family learned how to appreciate these services when my intellectually handicapped nephew was briefly incarcerated a few years ago. The public defender was all my middle class family could afford, and he did a great job. My nephew is now working full time at Market Basket (who had zero qualms about hiring an intellectually handicapped ex-felon) and in a healthy relationship. I hope others will follow in Nick’s footsteps and AmberPaws. I hope no one here ever requires one, but my family is so grateful for their help during our time of need.
The poorly paid public defender, a state employee with sick time and vacation time, but still poorly paid, and the court-appointed counsel both are dedicated and provide access to justice that would not otherwise occur. CPCS determines which list [Public Defender/employee or court-appointed private counsel] is chosen; in the civil side, involving DCF or contested guardianships, a minimum of three attorneys are generally needed and sometimes more, and to avoid conflict [a term or art for having two persons in the same office represent parties in the same legal matter who are in opposition to each other] only one will be a public defender. As an example of what drives “all those court appointments”, a case I am appointed to in Essex County has state’s counsel [an attorney working for the DCF agency, who is both a state employee and unionized], different private counsel for two parties who are opposed, and who are not indigent, a different attorney appointed for each child, and myself appointed for the mother, who is working poor and legally indigent. Scheduling court dates in a case involving 7 attorneys is – well- awful, as it some of the case, itself. The parties live in three different states but the children are in Massachusetts
The degree to which PDs, ADAs and the like are underpaid is, well, criminal. What other professional with three years graduate-level training gets paid like that?
Adjunct professors