Listed below are a few tips to efficient preparation of compensation claims, as well as reminders of certain important policies.

More comprehensive information is in the Compensation Claim Manual

The manual explains compensation procedures and rules for claims filed in the Fourth Appellate District. The rules and procedures listed in ADI’s manual are not necessarily reflective of the rules and procedures of the other appellate projects.

The manual can inform you whether a particular service is compensable and what the guideline for each service is. You also may be able to ascertain whether the time spent for a service exceeds the guidelines and, if so, provide a brief explanation with the claim, to help ADI assess whether it can be paid over guideline.

The manual is in PDF format and, therefore, must be viewed using Adobe Acrobat (a free program). It is arranged alphabetically by topic and is searchable. Also, the manual is indexed by subject matter; simply click on the topic you wish to view from the index and the desired page will automatically appear.

AOC Travel Policies

The AOC’s codification of its travel policies is available here.

Brief Binding

The Appellate Indigent Defense Oversight Advisory Committee has directed that, for purposes of reimbursement of expenses, service copies of briefs and petitions (except the copies filed with the court) normally should be stapled rather than bound. All service copies of a brief or petition should simply be stapled; one staple is sufficient, and it need not be taped over. This change will significantly reduce your binding costs (and thus will pass on to the Judiciary a savings in the cost of appeals).

Copies filed in or served on the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court must still be bound, as required by the Rules of Court. (Rules 8.204(b)(8), 8.360(a), and 8.412(a) [briefs in Court of Appeal]; 8.504(a) [petition for review]; 8.520(b)(1) [Supreme Court brief on the merits]; 8.384(a) [habeas]; 8.485(a)(1) [mandate, prohibition, certiorari]; rules incorporating those by reference.)

Communications

The AOC requires that communication time be claimed as follows:

Item 1 (“Communications”) is to be used solely for communications with the client and the trial attorney.

Important clarification: Communications that are part of a habeas corpus investigation (even if with the client or trial counsel) should be placed under “other communications,” line 23.

Item 23 (presently “Other Services”) is to be used ONLY for all other communications (including with the court, co-counsel, opposing counsel, family when necessary, etc.) and will be renamed “Other Communications.” As always, only communication time that is explained and deemed reasonable can be compensated.

Important clarification: When communication with the CLIENT uses a family member or other person as a translator or conduit for that communication, the time should be claimed under Item 1.

Item 24 (also presently named “Other Services”) will contain all miscellaneous services other than those related to communications.

For existing cases in which a claim has already been filed, subsequent claims should be consistent with previous claims in the same case regarding where communication time is listed.

eClaims

The eClaims program will automatically send you an e-mail when your claim has been submitted for payment. If you would also like to receive the project comments, please contact ADI by clicking here.

If you would like to begin using eclaims for ADI cases, you must obtain a temporary password from the eclaims administrator at the California Appellate Project by contacting Jay M. Kohorn or George Vergara at 213-243-0300.

Recycled Materials

To promote efficiency in the preparation of filings, the courts and projects encourage use of briefbank and other previously prepared materials (“recycling”). Because recycling by its very purpose affects the amount of time an attorney spends, the courts have long required the projects to consider it in recommending compensation. In order to determine reasonableness and/or guidelines for work, the projects must know what was recycled and what was new. Usually the panel attorney is the best (or only) source of that information. Disclosure of certain kinds of recycling is therefore required.

The Appellate Indigent Defense Oversight Advisory Committee (AIDOAC) and the projects require that a standardized “recycling” form be attached to all claims, interim and final, whether or not the attorney has actually recycled previously brief materials in the case. The new uniform statewide form is on ADI’s website here. It is intended to provide the needed information up front, so as to avoid delays, and also to be as easy to use as possible.

Guide to using the recycled material form

Substantial copying of previously prepared materials - and only that - must be disclosed. The projects and guidelines assume many kinds of commonplace materials have been recycled, and disclosure is not required for those. It is required, however, when significant copying may not be obvious. The underlying test is whether disclosure would affect the project’s judgment of how long it would take a reasonably experienced attorney to produce the document.

Examples of recycling that affect complexity and must be disclosed would be copying most or a substantial part of an argument and pasting AOB facts and/or arguments into a petition for review or habeas corpus. Examples of reuse that does not have to be disclosed would be relatively short passages on generalized, recurrent matters, such as statements of appealability, standards of review and prejudice, the elements of common offenses, and the test for ineffective assistance of counsel, probable cause, etc.

In assessing compensation, the project considers what was copied and how much new work the attorney did - for example, additional cases and analysis, as well as checking, updating, editing, and adapting recycled passages. The first time an attorney uses materials produced by another attorney reasonably takes more time for these functions than subsequent uses. The panel attorney should briefly explain such factors.

Review of Claim Recommendations and Comments

For the following reasons, reviewing and maintaining a copy of ADI’s recommendations and comments is valuable:

Accuracy: Check the copy to ensure that the information transmitted to the AOC accurately reflects the amount you claimed. ADI reviews each claim multiple times before sending it to the AOC, but on occasion mistakes occur.

Opportunity for additional compensation: Look to see where ADI recommended a reduction in payment. Services rendered may be more complex than they outwardly appear. Submitting additional justification or explanation of the services rendered at the time of the final claim may enable ADI to increase the recommendation for that service. Do this as soon as practical, when the issues and justification will still be fresh in the minds of counsel and the ADI reviewer.

Taxes: Record keeping for a small office is an onerous task. As much as ADI would like to offer assistance to our panel members, because of limited staff and resources, we are unable to conduct searches for panel attorneys to determine which cases may still require claims or to track the amounts paid at the interim stage. Keeping a copy of recommendation will assist.