Increase to Hourly Rate and Case Maximum for Criminal Justice Act Attorneys (Effective 1/1/2015)

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

The Judiciary’s Defender Services account received sufficient fiscal year 2015 funding to increase the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel attorney hourly rates from $126 to $127 for non-capital work and from $180 to $181 for capital work performed on or after January 1, 2015. Where the appointment of counsel occurred before this effective date, the new compensation rates apply to that portion of services provided on or after January 1, 2015.

In addition, the change in the non-capital hourly rate results in an increase to some of the attorney case compensation maximum amounts. Subparagraph (d)(2) of the CJA, 18 U.S.C. § 3006A, provides that the panel attorney case compensation maximums for non-capital representations rise “simultaneously” with aggregate percentage increases in the hourly rate rounded to the nearest $100.

Panel attorney case compensation maximum amounts of $9,800 and $7,000 will increase by $100 to $9,900 and $7,100, respectively, and the case maximum amounts of $2,800 and $2,100 remain the same.

The new case compensation maximums apply to a voucher submitted by appointed counsel if that person furnished any CJA-compensable work on or after January 1, 2015. The former case compensation maximums apply to a voucher submitted by appointed counsel if that person’s CJA-compensable work on the representation was completed before January 1, 2015.