Overview

• The Legislature’s bill raises bar advocate rates from $65 to $75 an hour on August 1, 2025, and to $85 an hour on August 1, 2026.
• Lawmakers allocated $40 million to the Committee for Public Counsel Services to hire about 320 additional staff public defenders by fiscal 2027.
• Many private court-appointed attorneys remain off assignment until their demands for steeper wage increases are met.
• Nearly 2,700 indigent defendants have not received court-appointed counsel and judges have dismissed over 100 criminal cases under the Lavallee protocol.
• The standoff highlights tensions over Massachusetts’s reliance on private bar advocates versus a staffed public defender model and its impact on constitutional rights and public safety.