The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the members of the court's CJA Education Committee will be holding a court-sponsored one-day writing seminar for both experienced brief writers and less seasoned criminal appellate practitioners on Friday, November 9, at the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, PR, from 8:45 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. Here is the program, and the registration form. The registration deadline is Friday, October 26.
We posted here on PRACDL's proposal to the US District Court for improvement of the Court's Mentoring Program for new CJA Panel Members. The Court had approved PRACDL's Mentoring Program proposal, with a few minor changes, as a pilot program, see Memorandum, but needed to amend the CJA Plan to implement it. The Circuit Executive's Office has now given the green light to the amendment and, at a CJA Committee meeting held yesterday, Hon. Aida M. Delgado-Colón announced the Court's selection as Mentors (from a list of PRACDL volunteers submitted earlier). These are the following:
The attorneys required to participate in the mentoring program have to participate in a number of "events" --most mandatory, and some optional. These range from in-court events (preliminary hearings, arraignments, bail/detention hearings, suppression hearings, jury selection, trial, and sentencing hearings) to out-of-court events (client interviews, witness interviews, working on various types of motions, etc.).
The idea is that the attorneys will interact with their mentors both prior to and after the particular events, rather than simply being asked to attend events without any interaction with the attorney involved.
Attorneys may use several different mentors. It is up to them to coordinate with the mentors as to particular events/tasks. When more than one mentor is used, which is the most likely scenario, the mentors will have to meet to make evaluations to the Court's CJA Committee.
Effective May 20, 2007 the CJA hourly rate will increase from the current $92 per hour to $94 per hour. For cases overlapping both rates, counsel will invoice all work done before May 20th at the $92 hourly rate and all work done on or after May 20th at the $94 hourly rate. Also increased was the hourly capital rate from $163 to $166 (for federal capital prosecutions and capital post-conviction proceedings). See CJA Rates Effective 5/20/2007.
With a view towards improving the Mentoring Program provided by the District of Puerto Rico to some of the new CJA Panel members, PRACDL's Board has been meeting and working out a proposal to present to the Court's CJA Committee, presided by Honorable Aida M. Delgado-Colón. At the gist of the proposal to be submitted, is the idea of putting the Mentor back into the Mentoring Program to interact with the Mentoree, rather than simply have an attorney attend a series of Court events. Moreover, the proposal will include participation for both in-court and out-of-court events, such as witness and client interviews, and motion practice. And PRACDL will make available to the Court a list of PRACDL Members willing to act as Mentors.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico will be sponsoring a Sentencing Guidelines seminar on August 5, 2005 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. If you want to make sure your seat is reserved, send an e-mail to Carmen Serrano with your full name and District Court Bar Number as soon as possible (no later than July 26th 29th),* since there are space limitations. It will be held at the Los Chavales Banquet Room and lunch is on the Court. Here is the Notice to Counsel announcing the seminar.
The speakers will be from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, so I imagine that's why it is a sentencing guidelines seminar rather than a sentencing seminar. Then again we had our great Booker and Crawford seminar earlier this year with great speakers.
* Update: The deadline to register for the Sentencing Guidelines Seminar has been extended through Noontime July 29.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals is currently accepting applications to serve on the court's Criminal Justice Act ("CJA") panel. Application packages must be received no later than June 13, 2005 at 5:00 p.m. For your convenience, here is the Announcement and the Application Form taken from the First Circuit's site.
Why does the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico spend thousands of dollars on seminars to get CJA panel attorneys to use technology in the Courtroom, and then foreclose counsel from making a closing argument using PowerPoint unless defense counsel first showed it to the prosecutor? I hope this is not the understanding of any other members of the federal bench here, but it was certainly disappointing to learn that even one judge thought this was necessary. And it had to be done before the prosecutor closed! See this post at TrialPrep.
On Friday, January 21, 2005 (3:30 to 5:00 p.m.) the Federal Public Defender's Office will sponsor a meeting for CJA Panel Attorneys with Chief Judge José A. Fusté to discuss the status of criminal defense in our district. If you intend to attend, let Ms. Mildred Ward know.
We have received notice that the CJA case cap for felonies has been increased from $5,200 to $7,000. The new cap will apply to cases in which any work was done on or after December 8, 2004.
This will shorten the amount of time counsel have to wait to get paid in cases falling within the cap, since these do not have to be certified to the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, who will now review only cases in which compensation claimed (and certified by the District Court) exceeds the new $7,000 cap.
Now if the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts would only implement the system it already has for electronic funds transfer to designated bank accounts of CJA counsel, that would also be a great help.
UPDATE: Since some questions had been raised as to the case cap increases and the effective dates, here is the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' December 10th Memorandum re: CJA Amendments. Thanks to Mr. Angel Valencia, Chief Deputy Clerk, District of Puerto Rico.
The District of Puerto Rico's Criminal Justice Act Committee counts with six practicing criminal defense lawyers, and five of these are proud members of PRACDL:
Any of these PRACDL members can assist you with CJA related matters. Another invaluable resource is Marlene Mortera, at the Clerk's Office, who does such a great job of scrutinizing and moving along towards payment all our CJA Vouchers. To describe the manner in which Marlene handles the job from the lawyer's view can be done in just one word: outstanding.
We have also leaned that PRACDL Members Harry Anduze and Francisco Rebollo-Casalduc have been appointed to serve on the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Supreme Court's Committee to Revise the Jury Instructions Manual. Congratulations to both! Don't forget Blakely!
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