Gov. Deval Patrick wants to do away with the system of contracting with private lawyers to represent poor defendants.
Springfield lawyer Anthony C. Bonavita says a lower cap on billable hours could cause a shortfall of lawyers available to accept indigent clients.BOSTON – Private lawyers for the poor are opposing a plan by House leaders to reduce their pay and replace some of them with about 200 full-time public defenders.
The House Ways and Means plan is more moderate than a proposal by Gov. Deval L. Patrick. Patrick wants to add 1,000 public defenders to the state’s payroll and do away with the current system of contracting with private lawyers to represent poor defendants.
“We’re pleased the House didn’t adopt the governor’s plan,” said Anthony J. Benedetti, chief counsel for the state Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees about 3,000 private lawyers for the poor.
Under the House plan, a yearly cap on billable hours for private lawyers for the poor would be reduced to 1,500 hours, down from the current 1,800 hours. The House plan would ban lawyers from accepting new cases after 1,200 hours, down from the current 1,400 hours. The private lawyers receive pay that includes $50 an hour for District Court cases, $100 an hour for a murder case and $60 an hour for Superior Court.
Benedetti said he would at least like the ability to waive the cap in certain instances.
Anthony C. Bonavita, a Springfield lawyer, said the lower cap on billable hours could cause a shortfall of lawyers available to accept indigent clients. Bonavita, who works as a private lawyer for the poor, said lawyers will hit 1,200 hours and stop accepting new cases.
“It’s going to cause, at various times of the year, a shortage of attorneys,” Bonavita said.
Bonavita said he doesn’t see how the state could save money by hiring an additional 200 staff public defenders. He said the state would need to bring on support staff and pay benefits, such as pensions and health insurance, in addition to providing more office space and computers.
Rep. Brian S. Dempsey, D-Haverhill, said the state could cut costs by reducing the cap on billable hours.
Brian DempseyDempsey said he was concerned about the governor’s plan. Dempsey questioned whether it makes sense to hire an additional 1,000 lawyers to the state payroll, along with support staff.
Dempsey said full-time state public defenders should eventually provide 20 percent of the work to defend the poor, up from the current 10 percent.
The House budget calls for cutting money for defense of the indigent to $151 million for the next fiscal year, a 27 percent drop from $208 million this year, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a private, nonprofit research organization. Those numbers include both private lawyers and staff lawyers who defend the poor.
Joseph A. Franco, of West Springfield, who also accepts cases to represent the indigent, said the current criminal defense system works well and has been recognized by national legal organizations as one of the best in the nation.
Franco said significant savings could be achieved if legislators would reduce some misdemeanors – first offense shoplifting or trespassing, for example – to civil infractions. If they were civil offenses, they would no longer require the appointment of a lawyer for poor defendants.
According to the Committee for Public Counsel Services, a private lawyer or staff lawyer is appointed in approximately 155,000 District Court criminal cases each year in the state, including 96,000 misdemeanors. Of these, 90 percent or 86,400 cases, result in no jail sentence, the committee said.
The Patrick administration says the 3,000 private lawyers handle about 90 percent of the cases assigned to the committee for public counsel. The state has 230 public defenders who represent only criminal defendants. If legislators adopt his proposal to replace them with public employees, it would eventually save $45 million a year, according to the governor’s office.
Dempsey’s committee rejected the governor’s plan to overhaul the Committee for Public Counsel Services and place it under the executive branch. The committee, led by 15 members appointed by the state Supreme Judicial Court, would remain a quasi-public agency under the judicial branch if the House plan is approved.
Dempsey’s bill also would save money through improved screening of the incomes of defendants, resulting in some defendants being denied a state-paid lawyer.