Bar advocates, (private attorneys who accept court appointments of criminal cases for indigent defendants), have stopped working. We are not “on strike” – we can’t be. We are not unionized. We are a group of lawyers who have agreed to accept criminal cases and who contract with the state for hourly compensation to work on these cases.
To get on a bar advocate list, we must apply. We must interview. We must pass a training course in zealously advocating for our clients. Every year thereafter, we must attend classes, or our contracts won’t be renewed. We must have offices or meeting places near the courts we serve. We are required to know the law — the old and the very new — and to use it to the client’s advantage every day and in every interaction we have with the opposing side. This is our job. We are required to attend meetings with supervisors, to appear in courts, to meet with clients, to work with forensic and social service experts, to be polite and respectful to the people we work with in the courtrooms and courthouses. We are expected to be respectful towards clients and witnesses.
Even when these people are not always polite and respectful to us. We are required to take client calls. To go to meetings. To visit jail and prisons. To analyze crime scenes and plow through massive volumes of discovery. This is our job. This is what we do day in and day out. We have chosen this, and most days, for most bar advocates, we love doing this. We pay for our own insurance, supplies, office rent, etc. We don’t have benefits.
We are here because the Constitution requires it, (6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution), and because the people we represent deserve it. We are not the most popular group in the courtroom. We are far from being the most admired group in the courtroom.
We stand with the accused. We have stopped taking cases because this system that we signed up for is not working. We bar advocates cannot afford to take appointed cases and still pay our bills. Neighboring states pay their appointed counsel at vastly higher rates. The public counsel system provides their attorneys with benefits. Support staff. Pencils. Pens. Paper.
The experts we hire whose job it is to assist us are paid more than we are. Bar advocates are asking for compensation that amounts to a living wage. When we can’t afford to take cases and stop accepting cases, the system stops. The indigent are either incarcerated in a jail or released to the community without representation. Bar advocates cannot continue to accept cases until the government compensates us at a reasonable rate — a living wage.
Nora M. Leovich is an attorney and bar advocate from Fitchburg.