Bill > S946

This bill mandates the Chief Justice of the Administrative Office of the Trial Court to submit a report by October 1, 2016, detailing the number of criminal and delinquency cases initiated in Massachusetts courts during fiscal year 2015, broken down by court type and offense, including murder, manslaughter, and petitions for commitment as a sexually dangerous person. This report will also specify how many of these cases involved representation by an assistant district attorney, a public defender from the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), or a private attorney also employed by CPCS. Subsequently, for fiscal year 2017 and beyond, state budget committees and the executive office of administration and finance will use a weighted system to determine funding for District Attorneys and CPCS, with different case types assigned specific weights (e.g., a homicide case is weighted higher than a standard district court criminal case). This weighted system will establish a caseload ratio, and annual appropriations for District Attorneys and the criminal caseload of CPCS cannot exceed this ratio by more than 10%.