FISCAL NOTE
Date Requested: February 13, 2025
Time Requested: 02:28 PM |
| Agency: |
Public Defender Services |
|---|
| CBD Number: |
Version: |
Bill Number: |
Resolution Number: |
| 2347 |
Introduced |
HB2351 |
|
|---|
| CBD Subject: |
Boards and Commissions |
|---|
|
FUND(S):
0226
Sources of Revenue:
General Fund
Legislation creates:
Creates New Expense, Increases Existing Expenses
Fiscal Note Summary
Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
Summarize in a clear and concise manner what impact this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
The legislation enacts an increase in the rates of compensation for court-appointed private legal counsel in the amount of twenty dollars ($20) an hour. The rates would increase from sixty dollars ($60) an hour to eighty dollars ($80) an hour for out-of-court legal services and from eighty dollars ($80) an hour to one hundred dollars ($100) an hour for in-court legal services. The proposed increase in the rates of compensation would increase the fiscal year payments to court-appointed private legal counsel by ten million dollars ($10,000,000).
The legislation further requires Public Defender Services to annually report on the specific services provided by, and outcomes obtained by, guardians ad litem. The annual reporting requirement will require programming changes to the agency’s Online Voucher Submission software that will result in a cost to the agency in the approximate amount of thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000).
Fiscal Note Detail
| Effect of Proposal |
Fiscal Year |
2025
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
2026
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation) |
| 1. Estmated Total Cost |
35,000 |
10,000,000 |
10,035,000 |
| Personal Services |
0 |
10,000,000 |
10,000,000 |
| Current Expenses |
35,000 |
0 |
35,000 |
| Repairs and Alterations |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Assets |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2. Estimated Total Revenues |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):
Please explain increases and decreases in personal services, current expenses, repairs and alterations, assets, other costs and revenues, including assumptions and data sources and delineation between start-up and ongoing costs. Please also include a long-range schedule of costs and revenues if fiscal impact is expected to vary in future years.
In FY2024, the hours of service billed by private counsel were (i) for out-of-court services, 437,888.6; and (ii) for in-court services, 58,594.2. The total billed hours were 496,482.8. While the hours submitted for payment vary from year to year, the amount billed in FY2024 is consistent with previous years.
Accordingly, a twenty-dollar ($20) increase in the rates of compensation means an additional payment to the private counsel in the amount of nine million, nine hundred twenty-nine thousand, six hundred and fifty-six dollars ($9,929,656). This is rounded to ten million dollars ($10,000,000).
The reporting requirement is beyond the current technical capabilities of Public Defender Services’ electronic Online Voucher Submission program. For any single attorney, the program can provide general detail about billing but cannot currently provide detail regarding the length of a case, the outcome in a case, and the summary of the various services provided in a case. And, at this time, the agency does not distinguish between services as a guardian ad litem or a parent’s counsel. Such reports can be generated in specific instances by the developer of the program but cannot be done on a global basis and cannot be done by agency personnel.
Accordingly, programming is required to enable the agency to automatically generate such reports for all attorneys including the identification by attorneys that services are provided as a guardian ad litem. Based on conversations with the developer of the billing system, the estimated costs for this reprogramming should not exceed thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000).
Memorandum
Please identify any areas of vagueness, technical defects, reasons a bill would not have a fiscal impact, and/or any special issues not captured elsewhere on this form.
The agency recommends extending the reprogramming required by the legislation to reports on the services provided by, and the outcomes achieved by, all court-appointed private legal counsel. The costs associated with the reprogramming would not significantly increase and would represent an opportunity to collect meaningful data.
Person submitting Fiscal Note: Dana F Eddy
Email Address: Dana.F.Eddy@wv.gov