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Today we have a look at the way court-appointed lawyers get paid — and what some of them are doing to get what they say is a sorely needed raise.

Four Things to Know

1. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he is removing the COVID vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s lists of recommended shots for healthy children and pregnant women. It’s not yet clear what effect his announcement will have on insurance, Medicare and Medicaid coverage.

In his announcement, Kennedy said there was “a lack of clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.” Dr. Brenda Anders Pring, president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, pointed out that boosters in recent years have targeted different strains of the virus. “The vaccines that’s in circulation right now are for an older strain and there’s a new one that’s been approved for the fall,” she told GBH News. “So as a parent myself, I am starting to think about, well, what do I do for my kids? They’ve had boosters every year. Are they gonna get their booster with their flu shot this fall? Sounds like it’s gonna be harder to find.”

2. A Mass General Brigham doctor has developed a machine learning model he hopes can one day be used to identify new parents at higher risk of postpartum depression — and getting them treatment sooner. “Most people come in six to eight weeks after their delivery, and by that time, two months, people can be really, really far into experiencing their postpartum depression, and not be connected to, or even recognize that they need, help,” Dr. Mark Clapp said.

Clapp said he used the charts of thousands of Mass General Brigham patients to train the program, in an effort to identify those who may be at higher risk of post-partum depression. The program sorted about 10% of patients into a higher risk category; one-third of people in that group ended up getting diagnosed with post-partum depression, Clapp explained. The program has not yet been used to shape patients’ care.

3. Some international students at Harvard said they feel like they’re caught in the middle of a political battle the Trump administration is waging on their school. The latest: yesterday the administration moved to cut another $100 million in federal agency contracts awarded to the university. “We’re essentially being used as poker chips in a battle between the White House and Harvard because Trump essentially wants to install himself as the provost of this university,” said Leo Gerdén, a graduating senior from Sweden who studies economics and government.

“It has caused a state of pure havoc for so many of these 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds who are here alone, have no family members in this country,” said Abdullah Shahid Sial, a student body co-president from Pakistan who has just finished his second year studying applied mathematics and economics. “I’d advise someone even within the U.S., that if you have to choose between Harvard or another place, I would ask them to think about it very cautiously given these circumstances.”

4. Boston’s Seaport has had booms in construction and population in the last decade — but little investment in new ambulance infrastructure, even as emergency calls from the neighborhood have doubled, according to Mayor Michelle Wu. That’s about to change: last week construction crews broke ground on two new ambulance bays on Dry Dock Avenue.

The $16 million building will include public toilets, as well as facilities for EMS workers, including a gym, showers, a kitchenette and a lounge. City officials say the building should be ready in 2026.

Court-appointed attorneys stop taking new cases in protest over wages

Hundreds of the 2,600 Massachusetts lawyers appointed to represent people who can’t afford attorneys in criminal court say they will not be taking new cases until the state agrees to pay them higher wages.

These lawyers are called public defender bar advocates. They work independently, not for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s public defender organization, and they take on about 80% of cases in which people charged with a crime can’t pay for their own lawyers — often in misdemeanor cases in district court.

For that work they get $65 per billable hour in district court and $85 an hour for felony cases in superior court, an amount set by the Massachusetts legislature. Bar advocates can also take on private-pay clients and charge them higher rates, leaving them with less time for court-appointed cases. And some choose to leave the state for higher pay: their counterparts are paid $112 in Rhode Island, $150 in Maine and $158 in New York State.

“There’s actually a mass exodus of attorneys to other states,” said Elyse Hershon, a bar advocate in Suffolk and Middlesex counties. “Dorchester [and] Roxbury have no attorney some days. They have double digit custodies coming in that need representation and there aren’t enough people to represent them.”

Because they work for themselves, they also often have to pay for their own health insurance, office space and other overhead costs, she said.

It’s not clear how many have stopped taking on new court-appointed clients. The attorneys said they are not going on strike and will keep working on cases they already have. Hershon said the attorneys are not looking for rates as high as corporate attorneys make, but want enough to live on. She estimated take-home pay at about $30,000 to $40,000 before taxes.

Relevant precedent: 21 years ago bar advocates in Hampden County stopped taking on new cases and got a $20-an-hour raise — from rates of $30 to $39 an hour to $50 to $59. The legislature increased their pay to $53 for district court cases in 2017, then raised it to $65 in 2022, according to the State House News Service. 

“These bar advocates work tirelessly in the courts every day. They could easily get jobs elsewhere earning four times what they earn as bar advocates,” said Jen O’Brien, a bar advocate in Middlesex County. “Instead, they choose to dedicate their time, their careers and their lives to public service to help individuals on what is often the worst day of their lives.”

Read Sarah Betancourt’s full reporting here. 

Materials from the State House News Service were used in this report.