Section 53 CPCS Hour Caps

Section 11 of chapter 211D of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, 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 shall not be paid for any time billed in excess of 2,000 billable hours. It shall be the responsibility of private counsel to manage their billable hours.