Twenty-five dollars an hour may not be enough to get someone to fix your computer, your plumbing or your washing machine, but right now it is supposed to be enough for state-paid lawyers in child-protection cases in Connecticut.
Douglas J. Monaghan disagrees. He’s a solo practitioner in Groton, Conn., who has handled juvenile cases for two decades. For the past several years, he has been a leader in the push to move child protection attorney’s wages from a flat rate per-case fee of $500, which works out to about $25 an hour, to an hourly rate of $60. In February Monaghan testified before the legislative Appropriations Committee, Judiciary Committee and Select Committee on Children twice in order to drum up support for raised House Bill 7238, which proposes the wage increase.
