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Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Attorney work stoppage sends court officials scrambling
It's a Thousands of such defendants in criminal cases in Middlesex and Suffolk counties have gone without representation, more than a month for some, a potential violation of their constitutional right to counsel that has forced judges to release defendants otherwise eligible to be held on high bail. Advertisement Soon, judges may start dismissing cases outright, based on an emergency protocol invoked in early July by the Supreme Judicial Court. Advertisement 'Things are going to get worse before they get better,' Coffey said in court as he weighed which defendants must be released from jail because there was no way of providing them a lawyer. The stoppage has raised questions about how the state organizes its indigent defense system. In many other states, the majority of defendants who can't afford an attorney are represented by a public defender from a government agency, and the court only appoints private attorneys if there's a conflict of interest, according to Aditi Goel of the Sixth Amendment Center. Only Massachusetts, Maine, and North Dakota rely this heavily on private attorneys, she said. Other states, such as New York and Ohio, task each county with choosing their own approaches, using any combination of public defenders, court-appointed lawyers, or contracted nonprofit organizations. 'There's no correct answer,' said Goel, a former public defender in Boston. 'But this is an opportunity for Massachusetts to look at how it structures its system as compared to other states.' Massachusetts had a similar work stoppage in 2004 in Hampden County, which led to the creation of what is known as the Lavallee protocol. The Supreme Judicial Court invoked the protocol two weeks ago, affirming the right to counsel. It requires judges to release defendants who've been held for more than seven days without access to a lawyer, and to dismiss cases of those who've gone without an attorney for more than 45 days. Hearings to release people through the seven-day rule began this past week, and separate proceedings to dismiss cases will start July 22. But already, the number of defendants affected by the current stoppage has far outpaced those affected a decade ago. Advertisement 'This is a problem that has happened in the past and unless there is a structural shift the concern is that it will happen again in the future,' Goel said. Maine, which has a similar structure for indigent defendants, also was hit with a work stoppage three years ago. In response, the state hired more staff public defenders and nearly doubled its pay rate for private attorneys, to $150, from $80. 'You have to create a healthy mix,' Goel said. Massachusetts officials say they are discussing ways to resolve the crisis with the private attorneys. But the new state budget recently adopted did not include a pay raise for bar advocates, and a resolution doesn't appear to be nearing. In a statement, a spokesperson for Governor Maura Healey said the governor expressed concern and urged the Legislature and bar advocates to reach a resolution. In Massachusetts, bar advocates in district court make $65 an hour, much less than the equivalent in surrounding states. They are seeking a $35-an-hour raise. 'We're sick of being overlooked and taken advantage of year after year after year,' said Elyse Hershon, a bar advocate in Suffolk County who has stopped taking cases. 'We keep the system intact and we have to be paid in accordance with that.' The chair of the state Senate Judiciary committee, Lydia Edwards, an East Boston Democrat, said tactics by bar advocates, particularly during a difficult budget cycle and cuts to federal funding, have bothered Beacon Hill leaders. 'There's a real anger about the bargaining chip being human capital and civil liberties, and that being the reason why we're supposed to pay $100 million dollars,' she said, referencing the amount legislators calculate the $35-a-hour raise would cost. Advertisement With the stoppage showing no sign of ending, the court system, judges, staff public defenders, and prosecutors are scrambling to manage cases under the Lavallee by the end of July, judges will have to decide whether to dismiss outright hundreds of cases. 'We are constantly rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,' Rebecca Jacobstein, of CPCS, said in court this past week. Over the last week, the crisis was evident in courtrooms from Boston to Lowell. Defendants begged judges for lawyers; some are held, others released. The public defenders with CPCS say they will staff the most serious cases, a pledge that will be challenged as new cases come before the courts. This past week, about 20 people had the first hearings under the protocol, with more than half remaining in custody because either they were assigned a lawyer or CPCS was directed to prioritize their cases. Several of those released were accused of drug offenses or violating probation, though one released man is accused of putting his wife in a headlock until she passed out, and another of stabbing someone with a switchblade. Judges ordered that those men to home confinement monitored by GPS. Meanwhile, a third county, Essex, is 'teetering' on the verge of having too many defendants without representation, Jacobstein said. So, her agency may soon seek to have the recent SJC guidance extend to there as well. The trial court said hearings on releasing defendants will fall into a regular pattern: every Thursday in Boston Municipal Court's central division for all Boston defendants and every Wednesday in Lowell District Court for defendants in Middlesex County and in Suffolk outside of Boston. Advertisement The more consequential hearings on dismissal of cases will begin July 22. There are more than 1,000 defendants who have not had access to a lawyer, and that number is only expected to grow. If a case is dismissed, any conditions of release meant to ensure public safety are removed as well, including GPS monitoring and orders for a defendant not to contact any alleged victim. 'The court has no hold over you,' said Shira Diner, president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 'It's a problem for the victims. It's a problem for everyone.' Coffey, the judge in Lowell, faced that dilemma repeatedly last week. At one point, Coffey weighed Jacobstein's concerns about representing a man accused of violating probation after facing a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. If she took the case, she suggested, her workload would be full, and she could not handle new ones, including more serious cases. 'We've already taken two cases today, that's all we can do,' she said. But Assistant District Attorney Amelia Singh argued the man must be held, she argued, and that means he needs a lawyer. 'We are in crisis, and this is a public safety issue,' she argued. Coffey ordered the man back to jail, deeming the public defender agency must take his case. 'The Lavallee protocol — it's a game of tag," Coffey said. 'Someone has to be the bad guy, and I'm it.' Sean Cotter can be reached at
09-07-2025
- Politics
Defendants released in Massachusetts as pay dispute with public defenders remains unresolved
BOSTON -- Defendants are being released in Massachusetts in the wake of a prolonged dispute over pay for the state's public defenders, and one of those set free was charged with a serious crime. The first four defendants without legal representation were freed Monday by a Boston judge following a ruling last week by the state's highest court to implement a process that requires releasing defendants without attorneys after a week. Among them was a man accused of strangling his pregnant girlfriend. Under the so-called Lavallee protocol, more are expected to be released in the coming days unless lawmakers address demands from public defenders for a moderate pay increase. The state agency representing public defenders had proposed a pay increase from $65 an hour to $73 an hour over the next two fiscal years for lawyers in district court, an increase from $85 an hour to $105 an hour for lawyers in Superior Court and $120 an hour to $150 an hour for lawyers handling murder cases. But the 2026 fiscal year budget of $60.9 billion signed Friday by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey didn't include any increase. Public defenders mostly in district courts have refused to take on new cases since May, arguing they are New England's lowest-paid public defenders. 'While the court's decision last week to implement the Lavalle protocols is welcome news and a critical step in making sure that people are not held in custody without lawyers, it is far from a solution to the crisis the courts are in,' said Shira Diner, a lecturer at the Boston University School of Law and the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 'Every day that our courts are without bar advocates is another day the criminal legal system isn't running the way that it's supposed to,' she said. 'Without appropriately compensated lawyers in court, the system cannot function." Democratic legislative leaders would need to consider a supplemental budget to accommodate a pay raise, but there were no signs of one in the works. 'The right to legal representation is a crucial element of the Constitutional guarantee to a fair trial," a House spokesman said in an email statement. 'At the same time, the House has a responsibility to Massachusetts taxpayers to ensure that we budget in a fiscally responsible manner, especially during this period of significant economic uncertainty.' Republicans were quick to pounce and suggest Healey, who's up for reelection next year, was to blame. 'This situation is spiraling into a full-blown constitutional crisis and Governor Healey is nowhere to be found," said Paul Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which promotes fiscal responsibility. A Healey spokesperson, Karissa Hand, said bar advocates deserve a 'fair wage' but expressed concern about the work stoppage. 'Governor Healey is concerned about the negative public safety impacts of this work stoppage,' she said. "She urges all those impacted to work together to reach a resolution and ensure that all defendants receive the representation to which they are entitled.' State Sen. Michael Rodrigues, chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said he was open to talks but urged public defenders to get back to work. 'We are ready and willing to work with them, but a pre-emptive work stoppage serves only to harm victims, defendants, and the overall justice system,' Rodriques said in a statement. The Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS, which oversees public defenders, petitioned the Supreme Judicial Court to allow the Lavalle protocol to take effect because of the work stoppage. Along with releasing defendants after seven days, the protocol requires that charges be dropped for a defendant lacking legal representation after 45 days. The judge ruled to enact the protocol Thursday. 'Despite good faith efforts by CPCS and the local bar advocate organization(s), there is an ongoing systemic violation of indigent criminal defendants' constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel due to CPCS's incapacity to provide such assistance," Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt said in her order. As of June 29, the judge noted, there were 1,144 defendants in the district courts of Middlesex and Suffolk counties without attorneys. More than 60 were in custody. Massachusetts is just the latest state struggling to adequately fund its public defender system. In Wisconsin, a two-year state budget signed into law last week by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would increase the pay of public defenders and district attorneys in each of the next two years. That comes after the Legislature in 2023 also increased the pay to address rising caseloads, high turnover and low salaries. Public defenders in Minnesota averted a walkout in 2022 that threatened to bring the court system to a standstill. A year later, the legislature came up with more funding for the state Board of Public Defense so it could meet what the American Bar Association recommends for manageable caseload standards. Oregon, meanwhile, has struggled for years with a critical shortage of court-provided attorneys for low-income defendants. As of Tuesday, nearly 3,500 defendants did not have a public defender, a dashboard from the Oregon Judicial Department showed. Of those, about 143 people were in custody, some for longer than seven days. Amid the state's public defense crisis, lawmakers last month approved over $2 million for defense attorneys to take more caseloads in the counties most impacted by the shortage and over $3 million for Oregon law schools to train and supervise law students to take on misdemeanor cases. 'Across the nation, we're seeing a concerning pattern: public defenders and appointed counsel, who are the bedrock of a just criminal legal system, are being financially squeezed," Lisa Wayne, executive director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in a statement. 'When their compensation stagnates, it's not just an insult to their dedication; it's a direct assault on the constitutional right to counsel.'
San Francisco Chronicle
08-07-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Defendants released in Massachusetts as pay dispute with public defenders remains unresolved
BOSTON (AP) — Defendants are being released in Massachusetts in the wake of a prolonged dispute over pay for the state's public defenders, and one of those set free was charged with a serious crime. The first four defendants without legal representation were freed Monday by a Boston judge following a ruling last week by the state's highest court to implement a process that requires releasing defendants without attorneys after a week. Among them was a man accused of strangling his pregnant girlfriend. Under the so-called Lavallee protocol, more are expected to be released in the coming days unless lawmakers address demands from public defenders for a moderate pay increase. The state agency representing public defenders had proposed a pay increase from $65 an hour to $73 an hour over the next two fiscal years for lawyers in district court, an increase from $85 an hour to $105 an hour for lawyers in Superior Court and $120 an hour to $150 an hour for lawyers handling murder cases. But the 2026 fiscal year budget of $60.9 billion signed Friday by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey didn't include any increase. Public defenders mostly in district courts have refused to take on new cases since May, arguing they are the lowest-paid public defenders in New England. 'While the court's decision last week to implement the Lavalle protocols is welcome news and a critical step in making sure that people are not held in custody without lawyers, it is far from a solution to the crisis the courts are in,' said Shira Diner, a lecturer at the Boston University School of Law and the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 'Every day that our courts are without bar advocates is another day the criminal legal system isn't running the way that it's supposed to,' she said. 'Without appropriately compensated lawyers in court, the system cannot function." Democratic legislative leaders would need to consider a supplemental budget in the coming weeks to accommodate a pay raise, but there was no immediate sign that a plan was in the works. 'The right to legal representation is a crucial element of the Constitutional guarantee to a fair trial," a spokesman for the House said in an email statement. 'At the same time, the House has a responsibility to Massachusetts taxpayers to ensure that we budget in a fiscally responsible manner, especially during this period of significant economic uncertainty.' Republicans were quick to pounce on the issue and suggest Healey, who is up for reelection next year, was to blame. 'This situation is spiraling into a full-blown constitutional crisis and Governor Healey is nowhere to be found," said Paul Craney, the executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which promotes fiscal responsibility, in a statement. The Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees public defenders, petitioned the Supreme Judicial Court to allow the Lavalle protocol to take effect due to the work stoppage. Along with releasing defendants after seven days, the protocol also requires that charges be dropped for a defedant lacking legal representation after 45 days. The judge ruled to enact the protocol on Thursday, though she declined to raise the pay rate for public defenders. 'Despite good faith efforts by CPCS and the local bar advocate organization(s), there is an ongoing systemic violation of indigent criminal defendants' constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel due to CPCS's incapacity to provide such assistance through its staff attorneys or through bar advocates," Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt said in her order, noting as of June 29 that there were 1,144 defendants in the district courts of Middlesex and Suffolk counties without attorneys. More than 60 were in custody. Massachusetts is just the latest state to struggle with ways to adequately fund its public defender system. In Wisconsin, the new two-year state budget signed into law last week by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would increase the pay of public defenders and district attorneys in each of the next two years. That comes after the Legislature in 2023 also increased the pay to address rising caseloads, high turnover and low salaries. Public defenders in Minnesota averted a walkout in 2022 that threatened to bring the court system to a standstill. A year later, the legislature came up with more funding for the state Board of Public Defense so that it could meet what the American Bar Association recommends for manageable caseload standards. Oregon, meanwhile, has struggled for years with a critical shortage of court-provided attorneys for low-income defendants. As of Tuesday, nearly 3,500 defendants did not have a public defender, a dashboard from the Oregon Judicial Department showed. Of those, about 143 people were in custody, some for longer than seven days. In a bid to respond to the state's public defense crisis, lawmakers last month approved over $2 million for defense attorneys to take more caseloads in the counties most impacted by the shortage and over $3 million for Oregon law schools to train and supervise law students to take on misdemeanor cases. ___
Winnipeg Free Press
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Defendants released in Massachusetts as pay dispute with public defenders remains unresolved
BOSTON (AP) — Defendants are being released in Massachusetts in the wake of a prolonged dispute over pay for the state's public defenders, and one of those set free was charged with a serious crime. The first four defendants without legal representation were freed Monday by a Boston judge following a ruling last week by the state's highest court to implement a process that requires releasing defendants without attorneys after a week. Among them was a man accused of strangling his pregnant girlfriend. Under the so-called Lavallee protocol, more are expected to be released in the coming days unless lawmakers address demands from public defenders for a moderate pay increase. The state agency representing public defenders had proposed a pay increase from $65 an hour to $73 an hour over the next two fiscal years for lawyers in district court, an increase from $85 an hour to $105 an hour for lawyers in Superior Court and $120 an hour to $150 an hour for lawyers handling murder cases. But the 2026 fiscal year budget of $60.9 billion signed Friday by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey didn't include any increase. Public defenders mostly in district courts have refused to take on new cases since May, arguing they are the lowest-paid public defenders in New England. 'While the court's decision last week to implement the Lavalle protocols is welcome news and a critical step in making sure that people are not held in custody without lawyers, it is far from a solution to the crisis the courts are in,' said Shira Diner, a lecturer at the Boston University School of Law and the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 'Every day that our courts are without bar advocates is another day the criminal legal system isn't running the way that it's supposed to,' she said. 'Without appropriately compensated lawyers in court, the system cannot function.' Democratic legislative leaders would need to consider a supplemental budget in the coming weeks to accommodate a pay raise, but there was no immediate sign that a plan was in the works. 'The right to legal representation is a crucial element of the Constitutional guarantee to a fair trial,' a spokesman for the House said in an email statement. 'At the same time, the House has a responsibility to Massachusetts taxpayers to ensure that we budget in a fiscally responsible manner, especially during this period of significant economic uncertainty.' Republicans were quick to pounce on the issue and suggest Healey, who is up for reelection next year, was to blame. 'This situation is spiraling into a full-blown constitutional crisis and Governor Healey is nowhere to be found,' said Paul Craney, the executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which promotes fiscal responsibility, in a statement. The Committee for Public Counsel Services, which oversees public defenders, petitioned the Supreme Judicial Court to allow the Lavalle protocol to take effect due to the work stoppage. Along with releasing defendants after seven days, the protocol also requires that charges be dropped for a defedant lacking legal representation after 45 days. The judge ruled to enact the protocol on Thursday, though she declined to raise the pay rate for public defenders. 'Despite good faith efforts by CPCS and the local bar advocate organization(s), there is an ongoing systemic violation of indigent criminal defendants' constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel due to CPCS's incapacity to provide such assistance through its staff attorneys or through bar advocates,' Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt said in her order, noting as of June 29 that there were 1,144 defendants in the district courts of Middlesex and Suffolk counties without attorneys. More than 60 were in custody. Massachusetts is just the latest state to struggle with ways to adequately fund its public defender system. In Wisconsin, the new two-year state budget signed into law last week by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers would increase the pay of public defenders and district attorneys in each of the next two years. That comes after the Legislature in 2023 also increased the pay to address rising caseloads, high turnover and low salaries. Public defenders in Minnesota averted a walkout in 2022 that threatened to bring the court system to a standstill. A year later, the legislature came up with more funding for the state Board of Public Defense so that it could meet what the American Bar Association recommends for manageable caseload standards. Oregon, meanwhile, has struggled for years with a critical shortage of court-provided attorneys for low-income defendants. As of Tuesday, nearly 3,500 defendants did not have a public defender, a dashboard from the Oregon Judicial Department showed. Of those, about 143 people were in custody, some for longer than seven days. In a bid to respond to the state's public defense crisis, lawmakers last month approved over $2 million for defense attorneys to take more caseloads in the counties most impacted by the shortage and over $3 million for Oregon law schools to train and supervise law students to take on misdemeanor cases. ___ Associated Press reporters Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
Toronto Star
03-05-2025
- Business
- Toronto Star
Hudson's Bay Company records give public chance to ‘reconnect' with ancestors
WINNIPEG - Dyana Lavallee stares at a copy of a photograph on display to the public at the Hudson's Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg. The Metis woman quickly recognizes it as the same one her grandmother had years ago. 'This is my family,' she said referring to the figures in the picture. 'I'm actually shaking a bit.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW It's not the first time Lavallee has visited the archives, but it is the first time she's seen that photo among the thousands of historical documents that are housed at the Archives of Manitoba. The collection, which is owned by the province, features items including the company's first minutes book from 1671, historical maps, videos, audio recordings and so many diaries, letters and research notes that the textual records alone take up more than 1,500 linear metres of shelf space. Hudson's Bay donated the collection to the province in 1994. On Friday, the archives opened its doors to the public to celebrate the 355th anniversary of the company's beginnings, and as North America's oldest corporation is facing its demise. Hudson's Bay filed for creditor protection in March after it could no longer pay its bills due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an intensifying trade war and depressed store traffic. Amid store liquidation and a hunt for buyers for the business and its assets, the company has been given permission by an Ontario judge to auction off the 4,400 artifacts and art pieces in its possession, including the 355-year-old royal charter that launched the company. None of the items in the provincial archives are included in the auction. Since news of The Bay's plans to auction artifacts, archivists, historians and First Nations groups have been calling for the pieces to be returned to Indigenous nations or be given to public institutions where they will be available for all to see. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Lavallee, who works in the Manitoba Metis Federation's Culture and Heritage department, agrees. 'It doesn't make sense to me to lock someone else's history away for personal use,' she said. 'It helps people reconnect with their ancestry. It gives them answers to their past.' Lavallee has been able to use the Hudson's Bay Company Archives to learn more about her ancestor James Bird, a high-ranking officer with the company who was born in England and settled in what is now known as Canada. Kathleen Epp has seen the value in making records accessible to the public. 'There are different questions asked of the records every year, so they stay alive in a way,' said Epp, who is the keeper of the province's Hudson's Bay Company Archives. 'People come with questions that (the company) never would have envisioned when they created the records, and they find value in whatever they're studying and in the answers that they find.' Not only has Epp seen the records used to trace genealogy, but also to study climate change because trading posts often recorded the weather, and animal populations were tracked by visiting and documenting trap lines. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Epp and her team are working to breathe new life into the company's records on Indigenous Peoples. The archives include photographs from Nunavut and Northwest Territories, and the team is trying to identify the people taken in the historical photos. There are also account books that document trading with Indigenous Peoples. 'Those account books often give the names of people but also it may be the Indigenous name or it may show how names changed over time,' she said. 'There's actually quite a lot of genealogical information there for people to trace their families but also to trace names.' First Nations groups have asked for a halt to the auction so that cultural, ceremonial or sacred items in The Bay's collection may be returned to the communities that they belong to. The Bay is expected to return to court at a later date to detail exactly what items beyond the royal charter it wants to sell and how the auction process will unfold.
