Mass. judge orders $100 hourly rate for bar advocates amid pay dispute

While top lawmakers rejected the requested $35 raise for bar advocate attorneys across Massachusetts on Wednesday, a district court judge simultaneously approved that same raise for three of those lawyers.

In Lowell District Court, Judge John Coffey ordered a rate of $100 an hour to be paid to appointed attorneys in three criminal defendants’ cases.

Two of those defendants, men aged 18 and 20, are accused of starting a violent fight at a barbecue in Lowell in June.

All three defendants ordered by Coffey to receive counsel at the $100 an hour — as requested by the Committee for Public Counsel (CPCS) — did get lawyers on Wednesday. CPCS

Coffey’s order took into consideration “individualized findings” based on “the charged conduct and the commonwealth’s concern for public safety and the defendant’s criminal history.” It factored whether CPCS could take any further additional steps and if the defendants’ release would “result in a threat to public safety.”

“Neither Lavallee nor Carrasquillo, nor Justice Wendlandt’s order forecloses a Court from ordering an increase in pay for defense counsel when the other two branches of government have failed to act in order to ensure a defendant’s rights are not violated,” Coffey’s order read.

Mass. legislators propose smaller raise for bar advocates

But on the same day and about 30 miles away, lawmakers on Beacon Hill reached an agreement on a bar advocate pay raise. It did not meet the attorneys’ request for $35 an hour.

They proposed a $10 increase in each of the next two years, an increase of more than 30% over the current district court rate of $65 an hour. One bar advocate called the raise “a slap in the face.” CPCS said it was “a starting point.”

The Legislature also plans to give CPCS, which employs full-time public defenders, $40 million more. This would lessen the state’s reliance on bar advocates and attempt to “more than double its existing workforce.”

Bar advocates represent roughly 80% of Massachusetts criminal defendants who can’t afford a lawyer. Full-time staff lawyers at CPCS represent the other 20%.

But after Memorial Day, bar advocate attorneys began to refuse to take new cases because of the stagnant wages. This led to a constitutional crisis of people being held in custody without due process or legal representation. And triggered a rare court order called the Lavallee protocol, which allows criminal defendants to be released after seven days and dismissal of charges without prejudice after 45 days.

More than 120 people have had their cases dismissed without prejudice, meaning charges can be refiled. It does not appear that the three defendants who received counsel in Lowell District Court on Wednesday will have their charges dismissed.

Defendants charged with assault

Cisco Rivera, 20, and Solomon Adomako, 18, both of Lowell, were two of the three defendants who received counsel after Coffey’s order to pay a $100 an hour, which “is much lower than the market rate for a privately retained attorney,” his order read.

“Continued detention without counsel for this defendant is an egregious violation of his constitutional rights,” Coffey’s order read for both Rivera and Adomako.

The two men are accused of showing up in masks, with a handgun and BB gun at a cookout on Common Avenue in Lowell the evening of June 20, as reported by the Lowell Sun.

Surveillance footage showed Rivera pistol-whipping a 31-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman at the gathering, the outlet reported, and then getting into a large brawl with multiple people. Footage also showed Adomako involved in the brawl, kicking the 26-year-old woman in the head. He also dropped a gun that ejected its magazine and spilled ammunition.

Adomako was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and faces firearms charges. He was ordered held; his case finally moved from a status hearing to a detention hearing scheduled for Friday. Adomako is represented by Jacob Solkoff, a Boston private attorney and bar advocate.

Rivera faces three charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and firearms charges. He was ordered held and also has a detention hearing on Friday, though no private attorney was listed in his court filings — despite CPCS’s statement that all three defendants received counsel at the $100 rate under Coffey’s order.

Anthony Benedetti, the chief counsel for the CPCS, said the agreement reached by lawmakers on Beacon Hill represented the “most significant progress ever made toward improving Bar Advocate pay and strengthening the statewide right to counsel.”

But the $20 increase was a “starting point,” he said in a statement.

“We also recognize and appreciate the Legislature’s mandate to expand our in-house staffing capacity over time. Increasing our internal resources will help ensure greater stability and continuity in the delivery of legal services to those who need them most,” Benedetti said.

Since bar advocates began refusing new cases in late May, more than 4,000 people have come to CPCS but have not been assigned lawyers. As of July 30, 3,196 people were still unrepresented, with 145 of those in custody.