Lawyers for the poor in Massachusetts won a $7.50 increase in hourly pay from the Legislature early yesterday, but they predicted the raise would do little, if anything, to coax back attorneys who have left public defense work for more lucrative private cases.

"I just can't imagine that lawyers are going to come flocking back to participate in the bar advocate program for an additional $7.50," said David Hoose, a lawyer at Katz, Sasson, Hoose & Turnbull who helped the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts challenge the rates in court. "It's way too little and way too late. It's pathetic."

Richard C. Van Nostrand, president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, said the increase would only bump pay for the state's court-appointed lawyers from about third lowest in the nation to fifth or sixth lowest.

"I don't see that rate being enough to bring people back into the fold," Van Nostrand said. "It's still less than it costs to run an office on an hourly basis, and it's still extraordinarily low by comparison to the rest of the country."

The predictions raise the possibility that poor criminal defendants in Hampden County could be freed from jail, if no new lawyers agree to take on their cases.

Lawyers for the poor contend that about 50 lawyers have stopped taking court appointments in Hampden County because of low pay. Last week, the state's highest court ruled that poor criminal defendants in the county could be freed from jail if they are not assigned a lawyer after seven days.

The Supreme Judicial Court also ordered that charges be dismissed if defendants go 45 days without a lawyer. Charges could be reinstated once defendants get lawyers. Lawyers said the problem would not likely be solved by the Legislature's latest action.

Thomas Workman, president of the Massachusetts Association of Court Apppointed Attorneys, warned of a situation within weeks "in which defendants will be routinely released in every part of the Commonwealth."

"It will be a sad day when the streets are flooded with defendants who are released because our system of providing indigent defense has been so badly underfunded, for so long, that it simply cannot function," he said.

Under the bill, approved in a late-night session, the hourly pay scale for court-appointed defense lawyers would increase to $37.50 for district court cases, $46.50 for superior court cases, and $61.50 for murder cases. Defense lawyers had sought much higher rates of $60, $90, and $120 for the cases.

Senator Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., Democrat of Pittsfield, said he hoped some lawyers would be lured back by the increased pay. But he said the Legislature could only provide what the state can afford. "We do what we can," Nuciforo said. "We are operating within an environment of limited resources."

Governor Mitt Romney appears likely to sign the bill, which his spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, called a "step in the right direction." But Romney would also like lawmakers to refill the account that pays the lawyers' hourly wages. Without action, the account will be empty by July 2005, Fehrnstrom said.

Plaintiffs won a reprieve yesterday when lawmakers abolished an annual fee that the state charged to keep civil cases alive in court. The so-called anniversary fee charged $120 for superior court cases and $110 for district court cases. It was enacted last year at the urging of the Romney administration, which felt the fees would encourage speedy action on cases and discourage frivolous lawsuits.

David W. White-Lief, cochairman of a Massachusetts Bar Association task force on the fees, said the fee was based on the faulty premise that plaintiffs control the scheduling of their cases. "We would love to get cases done quickly, but the reality is that they take much longer than one year," he said. "What it turns out to be is an unfair tax on people who bring lawsuits, whether they're a business or an individual." Fee opponents also filed a challenge in the SJC, which is now moot, he said.

Commuters to the north and south of Boston could one day travel into the city by rail under another bill that cleared the Legislature yesterday. The bill allows the state to borrow $425 million to extend commuter rail service to Fall River and New Bedford and $246 million to extend the MBTA's Blue Line from Wonderland in Revere to Lynn.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.