State’s bills soar for legal aid to poor, By Milton J. Valencia and Matt Carroll, February 14, 2011, Boston Globe: “The state last year paid private lawyers $155.6 million to represent poor clients, almost 25 percent more than anticipated under a 2005 state law that was passed to make their pay more equitable with other states, according to a Globe analysis of the spending. At the same time, the state has failed to take several other actions recommended in 2005 that would have limited the state’s dependence on private lawyers – and the fees they received – and better defined who qualifies as an indigent defendant…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty