"We are just treading water": State still struggling to ensure poor people have an attorney – New Hampshire Bulletin
Late last year, several of the state’s most experienced attorneys accepted an urgent invite to the state Supreme Court’s conference room. The state Supreme Court justices, including Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, made a big ask. Crushing caseloads had driven a mass exodus of public defenders, leaving 185 criminal defendants too poor to hire an attorney facing incarceration with no one to defend them. Would the lawyers around the table take some of those cases for as little as $60 an hour, a fraction of the $350 to $450 hourly rate their firms typically charge.
Source: newhampshirebulletin.com