The Massachusetts Bar Association's House of Delegates (HOD)
voted to add the MBA's newest section - Complex Commercial
Litigation - and elected the slate of officers and delegates for
the 2014-15 membership year at its May 8 meeting in Boston. The
Complex Commercial Litigation Section is the second new section to
be added this year, joining Workers Compensation, which the HOD
approved last September. (See related story, page 1.)
The HOD also adopted the report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on
Criminal Justice Attorney Compensation. MBA Chief Legal Counsel
Martin W. Healy noted that the recommendations in the report
include raising assistant prosecutor and public defender salaries,
and looking at the caps on bar advocate reimbursement to give these
attorneys a living wage. (See related story, page 1.)
Following a report from Ethics Committee Chair Andrew Kaufman,
HOD members approved for publication five opinions, including one
that allows attorneys to "friend" an unrepresented adversary on
social media.
HOD members also took up several measures brought by
representatives from the Juvenile Law, Access to Justice and Family
Law section councils. The HOD voted to:
- Support, in principle, the Statement of Principle on Fair
Sentencing of Youth Convicted of First Degree Murder (as
amended);
- Support, in principle, legislation relative to the proposed
expansion of the Housing Court to other areas of the commonwealth;
and
- Support proposed changes to Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:03
allowing law students to represent clients on a pro bono basis in
civil court under mentor supervision.
The May HOD meeting was the last one of the 2013-14 membership
year.