AFPD to CJA Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi all,

I just received an email from the powers that be that congressional budget constrains will possibly lead to some substantial cuts to Federal Public Defender Organizations. If I get the axe, I'd at least like to be somewhat prepared and thought just jumping over to CJA panel work would be a close fit to what I currently do.

Anyone on a CJA panel know/ can tell me how consistent appointments are? I'm sure it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but just wanted to see what the norm is. Appreciate it.

[futurePD24]

I was an AFPD, and I left last year to go into private practice. I joined my local CJA panel and have been a member for around one year. When I joined the panel, I indicated that I only wanted to accept trial-level felony work. No supervised release cases, no petty offenses, and no post-conviction/compassionate release stuff. In the year that I've been on the panel, I've been given the opportunity to accept 8 cases. In terms of size, I practice in a federal district that currently has four active district court judges and a federal public defender's office that has around 25 AFPDs.

[Anonymous User]

Thank you so much for the post- this is the OP. Are you happy you made the jump? Does the CJA panel usually accept most previous AFPD applicants? I guess I'd mix state and fed work (i've never done state work, but hopefully would be able to pick it up). Would combining these two be able to clear 6 figures?
How'd you find doing the administrative type stuff? Like filing your hours etc. Was it okay setting all that stuff up?

[Anonymous User]

I was an AFPD, and I left last year to go into private practice. I joined my local CJA panel and have been a member for around one year. When I joined the panel, I indicated that I only wanted to accept trial-level felony work. No supervised release cases, no petty offenses, and no post-conviction/compassionate release stuff. In the year that I've been on the panel, I've been given the opportunity to accept 8 cases. In terms of size, I practice in a federal district that currently has four active district court judges and a federal public defender's office that has around 25 AFPDs.

That is sort of fascinating. I’m not an AFPD, but my district has 3 active DCt judges + 2 senior, and 5 AFPDs (4 until about a month ago). We are a pretty small district, I just find the judge to AFPDs ratio interesting. (Your judges and AFPDs may well be overworked compared to ours!)

[Anonymous User]

I was an AFPD, and I left last year to go into private practice. I joined my local CJA panel and have been a member for around one year. When I joined the panel, I indicated that I only wanted to accept trial-level felony work. No supervised release cases, no petty offenses, and no post-conviction/compassionate release stuff. In the year that I've been on the panel, I've been given the opportunity to accept 8 cases. In terms of size, I practice in a federal district that currently has four active district court judges and a federal public defender's office that has around 25 AFPDs.

That is sort of fascinating. I’m not an AFPD, but my district has 3 active DCt judges + 2 senior, and 5 AFPDs (4 until about a month ago). We are a pretty small district, I just find the judge to AFPDs ratio interesting. (Your judges and AFPDs may well be overworked compared to ours!)

I agree, it’s unusual. When I was an AFPD (in a different district), there were 6 judges—4 active, 2 senior, and the office I was in had 10 AFPDs, spread out across three divisions. That seemed more normal.

[Anonymous User]

Thank you so much for the post- this is the OP. Are you happy you made the jump? Does the CJA panel usually accept most previous AFPD applicants? I guess I'd mix state and fed work (i've never done state work, but hopefully would be able to pick it up). Would combining these two be able to clear 6 figures?
How'd you find doing the administrative type stuff? Like filing your hours etc. Was it okay setting all that stuff up?

I am happy I made the jump. I was a state PD before I became an AFPD, and I like doing both state and federal work now. I found doing only federal work to be a little demoralizing after a while.

I don’t know if the panel accepts most former AFPDs, but I would assume so. The panel in my district requires two years experience representing federal criminal defendants. Some people get this through a “training panel” where they shadow panel members for two years. I was an AFPD for two years, so that satisfied the requirement.

If you can do federal work, you’re more than qualified to do state work. If you take federal crim defense and substract a lot of formality and eliminate a lot of the extensive writing, you have state crim defense.

I only have court appointed cases right now, and in my first year, almost all my money came from the state appointed cases, and I made around $175K. I should make more this year as my federal cases resolve, which are reimbursed at a higher rate.

I don’t really like filing my hours, but it’s actually not that bad. When I was an AFPD, I had to log my hours for each day on DefenderData, so I got in the habit of keeping up with them. And it’s easy to set it up. The CJA panel in my district has a step-by-step guide.

[futurePD24]

The last two replies are me. Didn’t intend for them to be anonymous.

[Anonymous User]

I'd be very interested to hear the info on the potential budget constraints in the FDOs as someone who's actively interviewing for AFPD positions. Don't want to leave my very secure current job for something that might be less than secure.

[Anonymous User]

The potential cuts to FPD surprise me, as their request to Congress usually gets fully funded. The rest of the Judiciary faces serious shortfalls, and the judiciary is considering cuts to law clerk positions and salary.

[Anonymous User]

I'd be very interested to hear the info on the potential budget constraints in the FDOs as someone who's actively interviewing for AFPD positions. Don't want to leave my very secure current job for something that might be less than secure.

Every non-defense federal agency generally loses positions every year, as the salary increases (yearly “COLA” and step increases) are generally not funded by Congress. They balance this by not filling open positions or by offering early retirement to more expensive employees. Employees are very rarely fired.

This is likely the issue FPD is facing next year. The budget is frozen at last year’s funding (or a 1% cut, if Congress doesn’t approve all appropriations bills), but they anticipate having to pay for a 5.2% salary increase

[Anonymous User]

The potential cuts to FPD surprise me, as their request to Congress usually gets fully funded. The rest of the Judiciary faces serious shortfalls, and the judiciary is considering cuts to law clerk positions and salary.

Yes, I'm the anon talking about the judge/AFPD ratio above, and as I mentioned, my local FPD office just added a position in the last month or so, and not as a replacement - they'd been at 4 for the 5-6 years I've been here. It seems unlikely they'd do that if they anticipated not having the budget for the position in future. I absolutely don't have any inside info about this, and can imagine too that it may vary some by office choices about budget and district/caseload, so not contesting the possibility of cuts, just adding an anecdote.

But also... do/can the feds actually cut positions (even for exempt employees)? I think layoffs require quite a lot of complicated reduction-in-force procedures. IME, they institute hiring freezes and salary freezes and cut resources, but don't cut personnel. But if your bosses actually suggested that positions will be cut, they will know more than I do.

[Anonymous User]

AFPD here. I can't say I have any true insider information, but our Defender talked with us about furloughs and early retiring folks. I also heard the same news from a different state's office. Both said it was Congressional issue, and we are hoping for the funding.

[Anonymous User]

AFPD here. I can't say I have any true insider information, but our Defender talked with us about furloughs and early retiring folks. I also heard the same news from a different state's office. Both said it was Congressional issue, and we are hoping for the funding.

Yeah, those are definitely other moves for addressing budget issues. I get if there are furloughs (or other significant budget issues) you might decide to jump, I just think it's unlikely you'll actually get axed.

Also, I've seen people go from AFPD to CJA to back again, so that could be an option.

Sorry you're having to deal with this, though.

[OldSchoolLitigator]

I was never an AFPD, but I made a living for about 15 years exclusively as a federal CJA panel attorney in a major district. Ask any federal CJA attorney and they will tell you that the biggest change is getting paid timely. CJA attorneys generally can't submit a bill until the case has been resolved (the defendant has been sentenced or has been acquitted). Some cases take 6 years for a resolution and the average in my district was about 2 years. (EDVa may be different.)

Also, the CJA administrator is generally just some simpleton bureaucrat who just wants to get cases off of their desk. If you make the CJA administrator's life easier by taking all cases (supervised release, removals, grand jury witnesses, trials), they will give a lot of cases to you. If you insist on getting only trials with good defenses, well, not so much.

Good luck ... it's meaningful work, decent pay, and I loved it for my first 14 of 15 years.