Updated: Sept. 24, 2025
Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel attorney funds were depleted around July 3, 2025. However, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' Defender Services Office was recently able to deobligate and make available an additional $8.5 million to the panel attorney line permitting an additional batch of payments to be made on Sept. 18, 2025. Once that batch is fully processed, remaining panel attorney payments will continue to be deferred until additional funding is available.
Please continue to file, process, and approve CJA vouchers as normal during the payment deferrals so that payments can be disbursed as soon as funding becomes available.
The Judiciary continues to seek every opportunity to obtain additional funding to meet this need.
Contacts
- Status of an individual voucher: Your local CJA administrator
- CJA Administrator technical eVoucher questions: National Support Desk
- National CJA policy questions: DSO_LPD@ao.uscourts.gov