Two of the biggest lawyer groups in Massachusetts are “challenging a ruling that allows judges in Hampden County
to force attorneys to represent the poor in criminal cases.” This is one more episode in a consitutional crisis that began when assigned counsel for indigent criminal defendants (called “bar advocates”), started illegal group boycotts in July seeking higher fees. (AP/Boston Herald, Legal groups challenge judges’ right to force them to take cases, Nov. 29, 2004)
The Massachusetts bar advocates are continuing to put their own financial interests above the law, their ethical duties and the needs of their clientele: — click here to read this entire post and here for a summary of the Editor’s argument that the boycotts are illegal and unethical violations of the antitrust law —
the mountain moon
gives the blossom thief
light
in the misty day
no window can be seen…
a prison
– haiku of Kobayashi ISSA, translated by D.G. Lanoue
