Boston (AP) – More than 120 cases, including some for mistreatment on family members and police, were rejected on Tuesday in Boston, the last fall -out of a month -long dispute about wages that public defenders have stopped taking new customers.
In a mostly empty courtroom, Boston Municipal Court Chief Justice tracy-lee Lyons enlisted the Lavallee protocol when rejecting case after case. It requires that things are withdrawn if a suspect has not had a lawyer for 45 days and it has been released out of custody if they have not had one for seven days. Tuesday was the first time it was called to drop things, while suspects were released in the last few weeks.
Most were for small crimes such as shoplifting, drug possession and violations of motor vehicles.
But several involved cases of abuse on police officers and domestic violence. A suspect would have hit his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach and hit her in the face. Another case was a woman who was reportedly attacked by the father of her child, who threatened to kill her and tried to strangle her. A third case concerned a suspect who is said to hit a police officer and threatened to shoot him.
The judge, who repeatedly called on the Lavallee protocol, rejected almost all cases after he was convinced that public defenders had done a good necessity to find the defendants a lawyer. There were no defendants in court to hear their affairs dismiss.
“This case will be rejected without prejudice,” Lyon's said repeatedly and noted that all fines and reimbursements would be waived.
Frustration of public prosecutors on fallen cases
Prosecutors objected in vain to the dismissal of many of the cases, especially the most serious that is rejected.
“The case dismissed today, with much more expected in the coming days and weeks, is a clear and continuous threat to public safety,” said James Borgheseani, a spokesperson for the office of the public prosecutor in Suffolk County, in a statement. They promised to restore all cases.
“Our public prosecutors and the victim -witness -proponents work extremely hard to keep victims and other affected people informed of what happens to their affairs,” he continued. “These are difficult conversations. We remain hopeful that a structural solution will be found to tackle the causal problems here and prevent a repetition.”
Democratic government Maura Healey, who spoke with reporters in Fall River, said the situation should be resolved.
“This is a problem with public safety and also a problem with the right process, because people need representation,” she said. “I know the parties are talking. They must find a way to work out this. We need lawyers in court … and they should certainly be paid fairly.”
Dispute is all about wages
Public defenders, who claim that they are being paid the lowest in New England, launched a work break in the hope of putting pressure on the legislative power at the end of May to increase their hourly wage. The state agency that represents public defenders had the next two tax years for lawyers in court, an increase of $ 85 per hour per hour for lawyers in court, a wage increase of $ 65 per hour proposed from $ 65 per hour to $ 73 per hour.
But the budget of the tax year of 2026 of $ 60.9 billion signed by Healey at the beginning of this month did not include any increase.
“The dismissal of cases nowadays under the Lavallee protocols is what must be done for those persons in charge of crimes, but without a lawyer to justify their constitutional rights,” said Shira Diner, a teacher at the Boston University School of Law and the immediate past President of the Association of Criminal Agency. “However, it is not a solution to the deep crisis of insufficient reward for lawyers from the bar. Until there are sufficient qualified lawyers in courts to the constitutional obligation to consult this crisis, it will only intensify.”
The wages of public defenders is a national issue
Massachusetts is the newest state struggling to adequately finance its public defense system.
In New York City, lawyers demand better wage and working conditions for aids. Gov. signed earlier this month. Tony Evers van Wisconsin A two -year state budget in the law that increases the wages of public defenders and public prosecutor in each of the following two years. This is after the legislative power in 2023 also increased the wage to tackle rising caseloads, high turnover and low salaries.
In 2022, public defenders in Minnesota averted a strike that threatened to stop the legal system. A year later, the legislative power came up with more financing for the State Board of Public Defense, so that it could meet what the American Bar Association recommends for manageable Caseload standards.
Oregon has since struggled for years with a critical deficit of lawyers granted by the court for defendants with low incomes. From Tuesday, nearly 3,500 defendants did not have a public defender, according to a dashboard from the judicial department of Oregon. Of these, around 143 people were in custody, some for more than seven days.
In the midst of the State's public defense crisis, the legislators approved more than $ 2 million last month for defense lawyers to take more caseloads in the provinces that are most affected by the deficit and more than $ 3 million for Oregon Law Schools to train rights and supervise law affairs to take crimes.
