Amendment #1355 to H4400

Lifting the hourly cap on private attorneys

Ms. Whipps of Athol moves to amend the bill by adding the following section:

"SECTION  XX  MGL ch. 211D, s.11(c) d) Notwithstanding the billable hour limitations in subsections (b) and (c), the chief counsel may waive the annual cap on billable hours for private counsel appointed or assigned to indigent cases and the cap on accepting new appointment or assignments if the chief counsel finds that: (i) there is limited availability of qualified counsel in that practice area; (ii) shifting the services to private counsel would result in cost efficiencies; or (iii) shifting the service to private counsel would improve the quality of service; provided, however, that counsel appointed or assigned to such cases within the private counsel division shall not be paid for any time billed in excess of 2,000 billable hours and shall not accept any new appointment or assignment after having billed 1,500 billable hours during any fiscal year.. It shall be the responsibility of private counsel to manage their billable hours.