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Committee for Public Counsel Services
Data Current as of: 8/10/2018

FISCAL YEAR 2019 BUDGET SUMMARY ($000)
ACCOUNT		FY2019 Conference	FY2019 Vetoes	FY2019 Overrides	FY2019 GAA
0321-1500	Committee for Public Counsel Services	65,493	0	0	65,493
0321-1510	Private Counsel Compensation	155,353	0	0	155,353
0321-1520	Indigent Persons Fees and Court Costs	23,185	0	0	23,185
TOTAL		244,031	0	0	244,031

Hide line item language

account	description	amount
COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC COUNSEL SERVICES		244,545,453
0321-1500	Committee for Public Counsel Services For the operation of the committee for public counsel services under chapter 211D of the General Laws including, but not limited to, payroll costs of the committee's public defenders, attorneys in charge and appeals attorneys, including fringe benefit costs; provided, that the committee shall maintain a system in which not less than 20 per cent of indigent clients shall be represented by public defenders; provided further, that to the extent feasible, the committee shall assign public defenders to district and superior courts; provided further, that not less than $3,000,000 shall be expended to increase the salaries of committee staff counsel; provided further, that these salary increases shall not take effect until January 1, 2019; provided further, that not less than 30 days before the salary increases take effect, the committee shall notify the house and senate committees on ways and means detailing: (a) the number of staff counsel who would receive increased salaries; (b) the methodology used to determine the amount of said increase; and (c) how the increase in salary is used to increase retention levels; provided further, that the committee shall approve by majority vote any increase in the base salary or rate of compensation for employees holding management positions, including, but not limited to, chiefs, deputy chiefs, directors, assistant directors and managers; provided further, that the committee shall submit reports to the house and senate committees on ways and means on November 1, 2018 and March 1, 2019 in a cumulative manner and compared with data from the current period to the previous 3 fiscal years; and provided further, that said reports shall include, but not be limited to: (i) the caseload of attorneys in charge compared to the caseload of public defenders; (ii) the number of cases handled by the committee in each month, delineated by public defender and private bar advocate; (iii) the average number of hours spent per case by public defenders; (iv) the number of public defenders currently employed by the committee and the total number employed by the committee at the end of each fiscal year, delineated by division; (v) the number of public defender vacancies to be filled; (vi) the average cost for public defender services rendered per case in the prior fiscal year; (vii) the number of cases assigned to private bar advocates; (viii) the average number of hours billed by private bar advocates; (ix) the average cost for private bar advocate services rendered per case in the prior fiscal year; (x) the billable hours of private counsel, delineated by travel time and time spent in court, including wait time and trial preparation time, including interview time, investigating time and research time; (xi) any changes to the private bar billing system and any billing improvements that have been made; (xii) the total number of support staff, investigators, attorneys in charge and management personnel currently employed by the committee and the total number employed by the committee at the end of each fiscal year for the previous 3 fiscal years; (xiii) a summary of all spending for psychologists, psychiatrists and investigators with the total number of hours billed, the number of unique vendors and the average number of hours billed; (xiv) the staffing efficiencies that have been achieved; and (xv) the total savings associated with the 20 per cent public defender representation mandate compared to the previous 25 per cent public defender representation mandate	65,493,432
0321-1510	Private Counsel Compensation For compensation paid to private counsel assigned to criminal and civil cases under subsection (b) of section 6 of chapter 211D of the General Laws, under section 11 of said chapter 211D; provided, that not more than $2,000,000 from this item shall be expended for services rendered prior to fiscal year 2019	155,353,380
0321-1520	Indigent Persons Fees and Court Costs For fees and costs as defined in section 27A of chapter 261 of the General Laws, as ordered by a justice of the appeals court or a justice of a department of the trial court on behalf of persons who are indigent, as defined in said section 27A of said chapter 261; provided, that not more than $1,000,000 from this item shall be expended for services rendered prior to fiscal year 2019	23,184,600

account	description	amount
Federal Grant Spending		514,041
0320-1715	Post Conviction DNA Testing For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Post Conviction Testing of DNA Evidence to Exonerate the Innocence	72,508
0320-1801	Post Conviction DNA Testing For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, Massachusetts Microscopic Hair Analysis Review Project	270,147
0320-1804	OJJDP Justice Reinvestment Initiative For the purposes of a federally funded grant entitled, The Massachusetts Leadership Project: Capitalizing on Strategic Alliances in Juvenile Justice	171,386

account	description	amount

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