Dishwasher repair for $125/hr?
Have you had to have your dishwasher repaired
lately? I did. Our Bosch stainless steel, whisper quiet dishwasher just stopped
working one day. When I pressed the button to wash, nothing happened, so I had
to call a repairman. Did you know that the going labor rate for appliance
repair is $125 an hour?
I got to thinking about the labor rate for
plumbers, electricians, automobile mechanics and such after reading the report
of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Blue
Ribbon Commission on Criminal Justice Attorney Compensation. That report
examined the damaging effect inadequate salaries paid to prosecutors and public
defenders, as well as the low hourly rates paid to court appointed attorneys,
was having on the commonwealth’s criminal justice system
“Inadequate funding for the
attorneys handling the prosecution and defense responsibilities within our
system presently denies the Commonwealth’s citizens a criminal justice system
that functions properly.” That was the conclusion of the Massachusetts Bar
Association’s Commission on Criminal Justice Attorney Compensation more than 20
years ago when I was its general counsel. Regrettably, little had changed in
two decades.
When I meet with legislators
on behalf of our client, the Massachusetts Association of Court Appointed
Attorneys, most are surprised to learn that private lawyers, and not full time
public defenders, provide representation for 75 percent of all indigent defense
cases. They are even more surprised to learn that these lawyers are paid a mere
$50 per hour for district court, CHINS and children and family law cases, and
$60 per hour for superior court cases.
In Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state
courts are required to provide counsel in criminal cases to represent
defendants who are unable to afford to pay their own attorneys. The court appointed lawyers who provide that
representation do so because of their commitment to the Sixth Amendment. And
while they don’t do it to get rich, the current rates are creating a real
hardship that makes it difficult for them to continue to take these cases.
For $50 an hour, a court
appointed lawyer could mean the difference between freedom and incarceration.
For $125 an hour, an appliance repairman means the difference between washing
dishes by hand and loading them into a dishwasher. The people of the
commonwealth deserve better.
