Vol. 36, Number 8—August 2004

CJA Payments To Continue

The federal courts have received $26 million in supplemental funding that will avert a shortfall in payments to attorneys representing indigent clients in criminal cases. The funds are provided in the 2005 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, just signed by the President.

Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham met with Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Representative C. W. Bill Young (R-FL), chairmen of the Senate and House congressional appropriations committees, to urge their support for the funding. Mecham also wrote to House and Senate appropriations committee members last month, urging their assistance in what Mecham called an emergency facing the judicial branch in the current fiscal year.

"If that funding is not provided," Mecham warned, "the justice system will be disrupted . . ." At the time, it was estimated that the 2004 shortfall would be $26 million and funds to pay private Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel attorneys would run out by mid-August.

The needed funds were added to the bill when House and Senate appropriations committee members sat down late last month to come to agreement on the Defense Appropriations bill.

"Not only is it important to panel attorneys," said Mecham following congressional approval of the supplemental, "but it is $26 million less that the Judiciary will have to expend in FY 2005 as a first charge against our appropriations."

Counsel is appointed from the local CJA panel if a financially eligible defendant is not represented by a federal defender office, which might occur for a variety of reasons, including workload or conflicts of interest. In fact, the CJA requires that panel attorneys be appointed in a substantial proportion of cases. A cessation of CJA payments means financial hardship for these practitioners. Approximately 60 percent of panel attorneys are sole practitioners, and 30 percent are with small firms with two to five practitioners. These attorneys are often dependent on CJA payments. Non-payment for services also increases the Judiciary's difficulty in finding adequate counsel. Courts already rely on a small, select group of attorneys with the necessary expertise in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and the group might shrink further if attorneys believed they would not be properly compensated for their service.