Quote:
Originally Posted by striperman36
regardless we still pay for it. I don't fault the individuals assigned
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You pay a lot less than you think. You have a statewide public defender office of about 200 lawyers who handle most of the non-murder indigent cases in the Superior Court, who make between $45,000 and $80,000 a year depending on experience. Then, in the District Courts, you have a bunch of private practitioners called "bar advocates" who earn $50 an hour defending most of the indigent cases in the lower court. Up until about 2 years ago, they made $30 an hour. Massachusetts is among the lowest paying states in the country when it comes to compensating court appointed lawyers. Many states compensate private lawyers at the rate of $75 an hour, and in California, a senior public defender makes about double what they pay here in Mass. Private lawyers defending murder cases as court-appointed counsel commonly make $125 to $150 an hour in other states as opposed to $80 an hour here.
We can argue about whether Entwhistle is really indigent and whether we should foot the bill for his defense, but trust me--his lead lawyer is not getting rich off this case.
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