COMMONWEALTH

vs.

____________________________

Now comes Attorney _________________ of ____________, Massachusetts and declines appointment to represent the indigent defendant in the complaint referenced above.

I am hereby declaring a financial hardship based on the Commonwealth’s failure to properly fund and pay adequate compensation for my professional services in appointed cases. The Commonwealth pays at a rate of thirty dollars/thirty-nine dollars per hour. ($7.50 unfunded "raise" excluded). The rates, both with and without the unfunded $7.50 an hour "increase", do not cover the overhead rates of my law practice and a modest income for my services. The SJC in Abodeely vs. Worcester County, 352 Mass. 719 (1967) has held:

"The regrettably small segment of the bar which has engaged in trial work has cheerfully borne the burden of representation of indigents over the years and these lawyers are frequently those who are less able to afford that burden than some of their brothers not in trial practice. This is inequitable."

A lawyer's stock and trade is his or her time and legal advice. The current rates of compensation are unreasonable and constitute a confiscation of my assets and services without adequate compensation, in violation of my rights to due process and the possession and enjoyment of my property. This is in fact a taking of services, my legal advise and time, without adequate compensation, i.e. a theft of my services by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The resolution of the Court's "emergency" should not be accomplished by the violation of my rights and the confiscation of my time and professional services. The denial of my Constitutionally guaranteed rights is not a solution to the denial of the right to counsel of defendants held in custody by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at this time.

The proper response to the "emergency" is the payment of fair and reasonable compensation for the professional services rendered by appointed counsel. Counsel appointed by the Court should be paid at rates set by CPCS of $60.00 per hour for District Court, $90.00 per hour for Superior Court and $120 per hour for murder cases. The Court has declined to pay these reasonable rates.

Therefore, I respectfully decline to accept appointment by the court for the delivery of my professional legal services due to financial hardship as set in Rule 6.2 of the Rules of Professional Responsibility. Abodeely v. Worcester County, 352 Mass. 719 (1967); State v. Lynch, 1990 OK 82, 796 P. 2d 1150.

___________________________
_________________________, Esquire




Phone:_________________, FAX:__________________
BBO#
Date: August ___, 2004