Increase to Hourly Rate for Criminal Justice Act Attorneys (Effective 1/1/2016)

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

 

The Judiciary’s Defender Services account received sufficient fiscal year 2016 funding to increase the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel attorney hourly rates from $127 to $129 for non-capital work and from $181 to $183 for capital work performed on or after January 1, 2016. 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, 2016.

The rise in the non-capital hourly rate to $129 results in a $100 increase to the waivable case compensation maximum amounts for non-capital representations of $9,900, $7,100, and $2,800, excluding expenses, to $10,000, $7,200, and $2,900, respectively. These 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, 2016. 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, 2016.

In addition, the waivable investigative, expert, or other services case compensation maximum amount of $2,400, excluding expenses, increases to $2,500. The new $2,500 case maximum applies if a service provider furnished any CJA-compensable work in the representation on or after January 1, 2016. The former case compensation maximum applies if the provider's work on the representation was completed before January 1, 2016.