A Shortage of Lawyers?!?

No, it's not the Chamber of Commerce's wet dream, there really is a lawyer shortage, at least when it comes to representing indigent criminal defendants in Massachusetts. As a result, the Supreme Judicial Court has decreed that defendants who are held for 7 days after arrest with seeing a lawyer must go free and those who are without counsel for 45 days have their charges dismissed. Court appointed counsel (private attorneys who handle indigent criminal cases, not PDs) in the Bay State make a whopping $30 an hour for their services. That pales in comparison to what they could charge in the private sector for almost any conceivable service. Hell, that makes a PD's salary look pretty good!