The Impact of Criminal Justice Act Payment Delays

Congress’s decision to approve an FY25 spending bill that froze funding for the judicial branch at 2024 levels has left hundreds of lawyers, investigators, social workers, paralegals, experts, and interpreters appointed by the court to federal criminal cases unpaid for their work. To understand the breadth and depth of the impact the suspension of payments has had, NACDL reached out to Panel members across the country and asked them to share their experiences. [Released Sept 2025]

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On July 3, 2025, with nearly three months remaining in the fiscal year, the government ran out of money to pay CJA Panel members for their work. Despite repeated warnings, Congress’s decision earlier this year to approve an FY25 spending bill that froze funding for the judicial branch at 2024 levels left the federal public defense budget woefully short of its identified needs. In addition to perpetuating the federal defenders’ hiring freeze, this decision meant that hundreds of lawyers, investigators, social workers, paralegals, experts, and interpreters appointed by the court to federal criminal cases would not get paid for the work they had done.

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Currently, over 90% of federal cases are handled by public defense lawyers. While many of those cases will be handled by a public defender, every one of the 94 federal districts also relies upon private lawyers who accept court appointments as members of their district’s CJA Panel. CJA Panel attorneys help provide representation when the public defender’s office has conflicts, such as multi-defendant cases or when a witness is cooperating with the government.

Unlike salaried public defenders, CJA Panel members work on the promise from the federal government that they will be paid, at a statutorily set rate, for their work. Unless the case has been approved for interim billing, payment is made only after the case has concluded and a voucher is submitted, reviewed, and approved by the court. This typically means that a CJA Panel member may work for months or more on a case before they receive any compensation for it.

The suspension is not only impacting CJA Panel attorneys, but the investigators, experts, social workers, interpreters, and other professionals the court appoints to support these cases, as they too have been unpaid since at least early July.

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