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☀️Sunny and getting hotter, with highs in the 80s. Sunset is at 8:12 p.m.

Today we’ll break down the latest in a complicated but important story: some attorneys who represent people who can’t afford a lawyer are refusing new cases until the state agrees to pay them more. We’ll follow the ripple effects of this work stoppage throughout the legal system. Do you have a question about something you’ve seen in the news that you’d like us to explain? Reply to this email or send us a note at daily@wgbh.org.

Four Things to Know

1. Investigators have narrowed the possible causes of last week’s deadly fire at the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River — which killed 10 people — to two possibilities: a malfunctioning oxygen machine or the improper disposal of smoking materials, both found in the same room. 

The room’s resident was one of the people who died, and investigators likely won’t be able to narrow it down further, Fire Marshal Jon Davine said. He called the fire “clearly accidental.”

2. The number of homes sold in Massachusetts is up from last year — and so are sale prices, according to an analysis by the Warren Group. The state saw 19,065 single-family home sales in the first six months of the year, up 3% from the first half of last year. Median sales prices are at $620,000 this year, 4.1% higher than last year.

Prices are even steeper in Greater Boston, where the median cost of a single-family home has hit $1,003,250, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. “June historically has the highest number of sales of an individual month. It’s also usually the month where median sale prices peak,” said Cassidy Norton, associate publisher of The Warren Group. “The overall median price will likely drop month-over-month, but not year-over-year.”

3. After last week’s vote in Congress to take away all government funding from the Corporation from Public Broadcasting, GBH announced yesterday that the organization is laying off all 13 workers from American Experience, the award-winning documentary series that has been on the air for 37 years.

The series will return this fall for a previously-planned 37th season, then run previously-aired documentaries in 2026 as GBH tries to figure out next steps. “Innovation is paramount in this moment of upheaval,“ GBH’s CEO Susan Goldberg said. “We need to do everything we can to ensure we can be here for generations to come.”

4. Two suspended Market Basket executives told GBH’s Boston Public Radio they’re worried about the beloved supermarket chain’s future. In May, the board put CEO Arthur T. Demoulas on leave over concerns about a succession plan.

“If you can’t stand up for something good in your life, then what’s the purpose of life?” said Joe Schmidt, Market Basket’s currently suspended director of operations. “Yes, you can make money, but money isn’t what it’s all about. It’s about doing the right thing and standing up for people you believe in, and I believe in Mr. DeMoulas.”

Bar advocate work stoppage reaches crisis level as courts seek SJC intervention

A Boston Municipal Court judge dismissed about 100 court cases yesterday because the people arrested could not afford a lawyer, and a lot of bar advocates — the lawyers the state usually pays to represent them — have not taken on new cases since the end of May. Let’s break down the story.

What are bar advocates? Bar advocates are lawyers who represent roughly 80% of people who are arrested and can’t afford to hire their own attorneys. They don’t work for the court system or the state — think of them as independent contractors. “They have their own law practice and decide to do some of their work through court-appointed cases,” Radha Natarajan, executive director of the New England Innocence Project, told GBH’s All Things Considered. 

Why aren’t they taking new cases? Bar advocates are paid $65 an hour in district court (where misdemeanor cases go) and $85 in superior court (which hears more serious felony cases), and they are asking for a raise. By comparison: the same work pays $112 per billable hour in Rhode Island, $150 in Maine and $158 in New York. “We’re just asking to get us in the ballpark of those other neighboring states — and then, obviously, we’re looking in the next couple of years to get us equal to some of those states,” Jennifer O’Brien, a bar advocate who also works in private practice, told GBH’s Marilyn Schairer.

What does this mean for people who get arrested? Defendants in some cases are still represented by lawyers from the Committee for Public Counseling Services or by bar advocates who aren’t taking part in the work stoppage. But if someone arrested can’t be assigned a lawyer, the state cannot legally hold that person in jail for longer than seven days. Even defendants released on bail or on a promise to appear in future court dates can’t have charges pending against them without legal representation for longer than 45 days. Those are the cases being dismissed right now. They include charges ranging from shoplifting or driving without a valid license to domestic violence and assault.

So are the charges dismissed forever? No. Judges are dismissing cases without prejudice, meaning prosecutors can file them again when more defense attorneys are available. But even putting the case on pause can have major ramifications, Natarajan told GBH’s All Things Considered. “What’s important to understand is that these initial days — whether you’re held or not — are absolutely critical to someone’s life,” Natarajan said. “A competent lawyer immediately begins thinking about the case and trying to, for example, make sure that they preserve evidence that can prove innocence later, like surveillance footage… if you don’t have an attorney, you can’t do that. And after just a few days, that footage — sometimes just 24 hours — that footage can be deleted.”

What does this mean for courts in general? Dismissing a case requires a judge’s approval, and until recently only one judge in each court was allowed to hear these cases. The state’s Supreme Judicial Court has now ruled that more judges can take up these dismissal requests to try and address the backlog. But that’s not a permanent solution, said Shira Diner, a Boston University professor and a former president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “The numbers are just going to pile up, and add up, and it has to stop,” Diner told Schairer. “The legislature needs to make sure that we can get the courts back to functioning.”

Have more questions, or a different issue you’d like us to dig into? Reply to this email or send us a note at daily@wgbh.org.