In another victory for assigned counsel representing the poor and children, who for many years argued they were vastly underpaid lawyers, an appeals court has ruled New York City must pay the attorneys a court-ordered $83-per-hour rate hike retroactive to Feb. 2, 2022.

In May, the New York state legislature passed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $229 billion budget, which includes pay increases for the assigned counsel lawyers in the future. The passage has been considered to be a win, in most although not all respects, for the assigned counsel for the indigent. They’d lobbied vigorously for the budget-mandated increases, and have argued for decades they’ve been underpaid.