CJA panel attorneys to receive full compensation after payment lapse

In 2025, funding to pay Criminal Justice Act panel attorneys ran out on July 3 after the U.S. Defender Services Office ran into a budget shortfall.

That meant that CPA panel attorneys — who often are private practice attorneys who work as court-appointed counsel in federal cases when a public defender cannot represent an indigent client who cannot afford counsel — were left to work on those cases without compensation.

In September 2025, Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported that Virginia CJA panel attorneys believed they would not receive deferred payments until at least Oct. 1, 2025.

Ultimately, payments resumed in mid-November 2025, following the approval of a 2026 fiscal year continuing resolution. According to information from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, approximately $98 million in panel attorney vouchers were awaiting payment after the 4 1/2-month payment pause.

“Fortunately, Congress has fully funded the judiciary’s Defender Services program for FY 2026 and all monies owed to CJA attorneys have been paid,” Alexandria attorney Joseph King of King, Campbell, Portez & Mitchell said.

King, who serves as the CJA panel representative for the Eastern District of Virginia, had a more optimistic tone about funding for this year.

“There is no anticipated shortfall in CJA funding for FY 2026,” King said.

While the budget crisis appears to be in the past, some hard feelings remain about the lapse in compensation.

Rhonda Quagliana, a partner at Michie Hamlett in Charlottesville and CJA panel representative for the Western
District of Virginia, said a shortfall like the one experienced in 2025 “must never happen again.

“While the Defender Services [Office] has now received full funding, the budget shortfalls last year were unacceptable and threatened the orderly and effective workings of our criminal justice system,” Quagliana said.

Budget crisis

In a letter sent to Virginia’s congressional delegation last summer, King and Quagliana, along with the heads of the federal public defender offices, pointed to a 2025 continuing resolution for creating the funding gap.

In the letter, the group stated the Defender Services Office was “critically underfunded,” as the resolution did not take into account necessary changes to funding to keep it solvent.

As the pause continued, the American Bar Association weighed in, noting that appropriations “failed to keep pace with increasing costs leading to a shortfall in Defender Services funding” impacting thousands of lawyers nationwide.

“The judiciary warned that payment uncertainty was straining the pool of attorneys willing and able to accept appointments, particularly in complex or resource- intensive cases where continuity of representation is critical,” the ABA’s statement read.

In October 2025, ABA President Michelle A. Behnke sent a letter to leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives on the need for funding for federal public defense in 2026, highlighting the association’s “grave concern” over the issue.

“As the ABA and others warned for FY 2024 and FY 2025, continued underfunding of federal defense services threatens a key foundation of our criminal justice system,” Behnke wrote.

Behnke wrote that 80% of CJA panel attorneys are small business owners with solo or small firm practices who were working without compensation.

“Accordingly, some are exiting the program out of financial necessity, declining new cases, or seeking to withdraw or delay cases until funding is restored, while clients’ liberty hangs in the balance,” Behnke wrote.

Behnke further noted that about 40% of federal defense cases rely on CJA panel attorneys for counsel.

The ABA did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

In addition to attorneys, Quagliana told Virginia Lawyers Weekly that others involved in these cases also felt the impact of the budget shortfall.

“It’s important, too, that the budget crisis affected not only attorneys, but service providers like investigators, mitigation experts, mental health professionals and expert witnesses required to provide our clients with effective representation,” Quagliana said.

Solving the shortfall

In her letter to congressional leadership, Behnke requested “an anomaly of $70 million in the next temporary finding measure passed to pay all outstanding debts” to attorneys, experts, court reporters and other impacted parties.

Short of that, she said a $1.76 billion request for the Defender Services Office for fiscal 2026 “includes this funding and would further enable the DSO to rebuild from the hiring freezes and meet anticipated demands in the year ahead.”

Ultimately, the Defender Services
Office’s final fiscal 2026 appropriations, enacted Feb. 3, provided the program with $1.766 billion, 21.7% above its fiscal 2025 appropriation.

In an April 9 letter to CJA panel representatives, Defender Services Office Chief Elizabeth Brown Luck said directly that no panel attorney payments will be deferred in the 2026 fiscal year, and that the approved resolution includes an anomaly that allows all submitted payment vouchers to be paid out.

Additionally, the appropriations include a 1% increase to the hourly rate for both non-capital and capital representations. Per the letter, the rates have increased to $177 per hour for non-capital cases and $226 per hour for capital cases.

Looking ahead, the letter states that the office’s fiscal 2027 request is for
$1.79 billion, a 1.5% increase from the 2026 fiscal year. That request will include “funding for all projected panel attorney requirements in FY 2027.”

Impact

Although the funding issues appear to be in the rearview mirror, Virginia’s CJA panel representatives noted that the CJA attorneys, who number more than 100 statewide, felt significant impacts.

“We are a resilient and committed group, and it appears that most CJA attorneys weathered the storm and remained on the lists of lawyers who take court-assigned federal cases,” Quagliana said. “But there were certainly attorneys who simply could not withstand the financial strain.”

In the Eastern District, King said, “it would appear that attrition to the EDVA panel due to nonpayment was limited.

“However, if the uncertainty continued into FY 2026 or if the DSO was underfunded in the latest budget, it would be different,” he added. “Should another funding shortfall occur, I anticipate CJA panel attorneys will respond more decisively — seeking to stay or dismiss cases, declining new cases or leaving the panel altogether.”

In addition to attorneys facing dropping off the CJA panel, Quagliana said that the Western District saw contractors who did not sign on to cases fearing payment delays or complete nonpayment.

“While the budget crisis seems to have resolved, that shouldn’t obscure how dire the budget crisis was last year,” Quagliana
said.

Noting that the legal system depends on criminal defense attorneys and court- appointed defenders if a litigant cannot afford counsel, Quagliana spoke to some emotions the budget shortfall brought forward.

“We should be recognized as essential personnel within our court system and treated accordingly,” Quagliana said. “Our CJA attorneys serve the highest ideals of justice and should be recognized for their efforts — not penalized.”