LOWELL — The woman stood, handcuffed, before Judge John Coffey, accused of assaulting her longtime boyfriend. She couldn’t afford a lawyer. And, as of Tuesday, the court couldn’t assign her one. The lawyers who often take such cases have stopped doing so. The judge released the woman and set a day for her to return next month. He told her: “Hopefully, on that date, I‘ll have an attorney I can appoint you.” It was a scene that played out repeatedly in various forms across the state on Tuesday, the first day of a work stoppage for many court-appointed attorneys amid an escalating pay fight . The private attorneys, called bar advocates , are independent and represent indigent clients on a case-by-case basis, and they are paid hourly. But they say they will not take new cases until the state government raises their rates. They’re forcing the issue now, they say, as their numbers have already started to dwindle while the rates the state pays them to represent clients languishes behind neighboring states. In a press conference Tuesday on the steps of the State House, Middlesex County bar advocate Sean Delaney, who has stopped taking new cases, said he’s seen a “mass exodus” of bar advocates in recent years. If the trend keeps up, he said, “Someone who’s poor is not going to have zealous representation any longer in Massachusetts. And not too long ago, public defense in Massachusetts was the gold standard in the country. That’s what we’re facing, folks.” Bar advocates represent about 80 percent of indigent defendants in Massachusetts, with staff attorneys at the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s public defender agency, accounting for the remainder. Attorneys generally take cases by signing up for “duty days” in their local courthouse, where they are assigned to take cases for any new criminal defendants the court deems can’t afford a lawyer. Busy courts might typically have several attorneys signed up each day. But on Tuesday, according to several attorneys who were present, some courthouses had no one signed up. A combination of bar advocates who aren’t joining in the stoppage, staff public defenders, and private attorneys who happened to be in the courthouse Tuesday handled cases in which the state was seeking to hold people in custody, which are the most pressing. Because of the decentralized nature of the bar advocacy programs, which are operated county by county, it’s not clear how many of the 2,600 bar advocates across the state have stopped taking cases. The extent of the disruption to the court system will likely take days or even weeks to become clear. In Coffey’s courtroom in Lowell, a supervising attorney for bar advocates stepped in to argue for people who would otherwise be held on high bail. In Cambridge District Court, according to the clerk’s office, the only two men who were held were represented on a temporary basis by other attorneys who were present. CPCS staff attorneys picked up cases in various courts, including in Boston, but they each have caps on the number of people they can represent, so the amount they can continue to chip in is limited if the stoppage stretches on. “We are doing everything within our authority to ensure that every client receives timely representation,” said CPCS chief counsel Anthony Benedetti in a statement Tuesday. He said that includes coordinating with the courts and prioritizing defendants in custody. Multiple district attorney offices said they did not have specific numbers on how many people without a lawyer were held. A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Trial Court said there was no data available Tuesday on the number of people without a lawyer who were held and did not comment further. When someone is arrested, is ordered held, and does not have a lawyer, they can only be held for a week before they’re assigned an attorney to argue on their behalf. If they’re not assigned a lawyer in that time, they will be released under guidance set by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court. For people who are not held, such as the woman before Coffey, the courts have 45 days to assign them representation. On Tuesday, the clock began to tick for defendants not assigned lawyers. Two decades ago, bar advocates held a similar work stoppage focused in Hampden County, which includes Springfield. Court caseloads began to back up, with defendants being held for days without arraignment, a violation of their rights to due process. As the caseload crisis worsened, the state‘s higher courts stepped in, creating a protocol for the most severe circumstances in which many defendants were going unrepresented. In cases in which a defendant had been held for more than seven days, they would either be released as the case continued or have the charges dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled at a later date. In the years since, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled that people can petition a single justice of the high court to implement the protocol if a similar issue arises. The bar advocates who work in district courts, the base level of the criminal court system, are paid $65 an hour. In superior court, where most felonies are prosecuted, they make $85. If attorneys have enough experience to qualify for the “murder list,” they would be paid $120 an hour for homicide cases. In comparison, Rhode Island this year increased its pay, so court-appointed lawyers for most cases make $112 an hour, and those representing people accused of the most serious felonies make $142. Previously, they were paid $60 an hour for low-level crimes, $90 for felonies, and $100 for murder cases. In New Hampshire, court-appointed attorneys make $125 or $150 an hour, and in Maine, it’s $150 across the board. “This wage is just not sufficient. In fact, it’s not even in the ballpark,” said Lowell-based bar advocate Jamal Aruri, who said he stopped taking new cases. Earlier this spring, a legislative proposal to raise rates for Massachusetts bar advocates failed to gain traction. A more narrow proposal to increase pay for those in superior court and taking appointments for mental-health matters has passed the Senate, but still needs final approval. “We didn’t want it to come to this. We love this work, but it has to be sustainable,” said Elyse Hershon, a bar advocate in Suffolk County who stopped taking cases. “At a certain point, it’s impossible.”
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