Boston – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments today in Committee for Public Counsel Services v. Middlesex and Suffolk County District Courts, et al., which concerns the crisis of legal representation for indigent clients and a dispute over adequate compensation for bar advocates.
Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, issued the following statement in response:
“When the state fails to create a system where indigent defense attorneys can afford to do their work, the most vulnerable defendants pay the cost. That is exactly what we’ve seen over the past five months, with more than 7,000 indigent defendants going without representation. But this problem is not new, and neither is the court’s role in resolving basic constitutional violations. Given the Legislature’s repeated failure to sufficiently address this crisis over the past 20 years, the court must step in and exercise its authority to protect the constitutional right to counsel. As we argue in our brief, the court should declare the current compensation scheme for bar advocates unconstitutional, and establish an immediate, temporary rate to address this violation until the Legislature develops an adequate solution.”
Read the ACLU of Massachusetts amicus brief here.
