Amendment #1164 to H3800

CPCS Billable Hours Cap

Representatives Meschino of Hull, Vega of Holyoke, Linsky of Natick, Williams of Springfield, Garry of Dracut, Hecht of Watertown, Ciccolo of Lexington, Keefe of Worcester, Blais of Sunderland, Connolly of Cambridge and Cutler of Duxbury move to amend the bill by adding the following section:

"SECTION XX.  Section 11 of chapter 211D of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out subsections (c) and (d) and inserting in place thereof the following subsection:-

(c) Notwithstanding the billable hour limitation in subsection (b), the chief counsel of the committee may waive the annual cap on billable hours for private counsel appointed or assigned to indigent cases if the chief counsel finds that: (i) there is limited availability of qualified counsel in that practice area; (ii) there is limited availability of qualified counsel in a geographic area; or (iii) increasing the limit would improve efficiency and quality of service; provided, however, that counsel appointed or assigned to such cases within the private counsel division may bill up to but not more than 2,000 billable hours. It shall be the responsibility of private counsel to manage their billable hours".

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #1164 to H3800

CPCS Billable Hours Cap