State v. Lynch

OPALA, Vice Chief Justice,

concurring in part and dissenting in part.

The court pronounces today that the statutory assignment scheme, which requires that lawyers represent indigent defendants in criminal — and in certain civil — cases, while not facially infirm, may be unconstitutional in its present-day application. In a proceeding for corrective relief from the trial judge’s order, which approved two lawyers’ fees in an amount exceeding the statutory maximum rates for criminal defense work, the court today (1) modifies the trial court’s order by reducing the hourly rate to the level of pay…