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Introduced Version Senate Bill 276 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
Senate Bill No. 276

(By Senators Bowman, Helmick, Prezioso, Unger,

Facemyer, Guills and Plymale)

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[Introduced January 21, 2008; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §29-21-13a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to Public Defender Services generally; clarifying panel attorney compensation and expenses; and providing a limit on submission of claims.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §29-21-13a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 21. PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES.
§29-21-13a. Compensation and expenses for panel attorneys.
(a) All panel attorneys shall maintain detailed and accurate records of the time expended and expenses incurred on behalf of eligible clients, and upon completion of each case, exclusive of appeal, shall submit to the appointing court a voucher for services. Claims for fees and expense reimbursements shall be submitted to the appointing court on forms approved by the executive director. Claims submitted more than four years ninety days after the last date of service shall be rejected beginning with all cases completed after the last day of June, two thousand eight.
The appointing court shall review the voucher to determine if the time and expense claims are reasonable, necessary and valid, and shall forward the voucher to the agency with an order approving payment of the claimed amount or of a lesser sum the court considers appropriate.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, Public Defender Services may pay by direct bill, prior to the completion of the case, litigation expenses incurred by attorneys appointed under this article.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, a panel attorney may be compensated for services rendered and reimbursed for expenses incurred prior to the completion of the case where: (1) More than six months have expired since the commencement of the panel attorney's representation in the case; and (2) no prior payment of attorney fees has been made to the panel attorney by Public Defender Services during the case. The amounts of any fees or expenses paid to the panel attorney on an interim basis, when combined with any amounts paid to the panel attorney at the conclusion of the case, shall not exceed the limitations on fees and expenses imposed by this section.
(d) In each case in which a panel attorney provides legal representation under this article, and in each appeal after conviction in circuit court, the panel attorney shall be compensated at the following rates for actual and necessary time expended for services performed and expenses incurred subsequent to the effective date of this article:
(1) For attorney's work performed out of court, compensation shall be at the rate of forty-five dollars per hour. For paralegal's work performed out of court for the attorney, compensation shall be at the rate of the paralegal's regular compensation on an hourly basis or, if salaried, at the hourly rate of compensation which would produce the paralegal's current salary, but in no event shall the compensation exceed twenty dollars per hour. Out-of-court work includes, but is not limited to, travel, interviews of clients or witnesses, preparation of pleadings and prehearing or pretrial research.
(2) For attorney's work performed in court, compensation shall be at the rate of sixty-five dollars per hour. No compensation for paralegal's work performed in court shall be allowed. In-court work includes, but is not limited to, all time spent awaiting hearing or trial if the presence of the attorney is required before a judge, magistrate, special master or other judicial officer.
(3) The maximum amount of compensation for out-of-court and in-court work under this subsection is as follows: For proceedings of any kind involving felonies for which a penalty of life imprisonment may be imposed, the amount as the court may approve; for all other eligible proceedings, three thousand dollars unless the court, for good cause shown, approves payment of a larger sum.
(e) Actual and necessary expenses incurred in providing legal representation for proceedings of any kind involving felonies for which a penalty of life imprisonment may be imposed, including, but not limited to, expenses for travel, transcripts, salaried or contracted investigative services and expert witnesses, shall be reimbursed in an amount as the court may approve. For all other eligible proceedings, actual and necessary expenses incurred in providing legal representation, including, but not limited to, expenses for travel, transcripts, salaried or contracted investigative services and expert witnesses, shall be reimbursed to a maximum of fifteen hundred dollars one thousand five hundred dollars unless the court, for good cause shown, approves reimbursement of a larger sum.
Expense vouchers shall specifically set forth the nature, amount and purpose of expenses incurred and shall provide receipts, invoices or other documentation required by the executive director and the State Auditor:
(1) (A) Reimbursement of expenses for production of transcripts of proceedings reported by a court reporter is limited to the cost per original page and per copy page as set forth in section four, article seven, chapter fifty-one of this code. Reimbursement of the cost of copies of such transcripts is limited to the cost per copy page as provided for under said section. It is the duty of the executive director of Public Defender Services to maintain computer records of all transcripts, including originals and copies, for which payment has been made.
(B) (i)There shall be no reimbursement of expenses for or production of a transcript of a preliminary hearing before a magistrate or juvenile referee, or of a magistrate court jury trial, which has been reported by a court reporter at the request of the attorney, where the preliminary such hearing or jury trial has also been recorded electronically in accordance with the provisions of section eight, article five, chapter fifty of this code or court rule.
(ii) Reimbursement of the expense of an appearance fee for a court reporter who reports a proceeding other than one described in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph, or who reports a proceeding which is not reported by an official court reporter acting in his or her official capacity for the court, is limited to twenty-five dollars. Where a transcript of a proceeding is produced, there shall be no reimbursement for the expense of any appearance fee. Where a transcript is requested by the attorney after an appearance fee has been paid, reimbursement of the expense incurred to obtain the transcript is limited to the cost of producing the transcript, within the prescribed limitations of paragraph (A) of this subdivision, less the amount of the paid appearance fee.
(iii) Reimbursement of travel expenses incurred for travel by a court reporter is subject to the limitations provided by subdivision (2) of this subsection.
(iv) Except for the appearance fees provided in this paragraph, there shall be no reimbursement for hourly court reporters' fees or fees for other time expended by the court reporter, either at the proceeding or traveling to or from the proceeding.
(C) Reimbursement of the cost of transcription of tapes electronically recorded during preliminary hearings or magistrate court jury trials is limited to the rates established by the Supreme Court of Appeals for the reimbursement of transcriptions of electronically recorded hearings and trial one dollar per page.
(2) Reimbursement for any travel expense incurred in an eligible proceeding is limited to the rates for the reimbursement of travel expenses established by rules promulgated by the Governor pursuant to the provisions of section eleven, article eight three, chapter twelve of this code and administered by the Secretary of the Department of Administration pursuant to the provisions of section forty-eight, article three, chapter five-a of this code.
(3) Reimbursement for investigative services is limited to a rate of thirty dollars per hour for work performed by an investigator.
(f) For purposes of compensation under this section, an appeal from a final order of the circuit court, or proceeding seeking an extraordinary remedy, made to the Supreme Court of Appeals, shall be considered a separate case.
(g) Vouchers submitted under this section shall specifically set forth the nature of the service rendered, the stage of proceeding or type of hearing involved, the date and place the service was rendered and the amount of time expended in each instance. All time claimed on the vouchers shall be itemized to the nearest tenth of an hour. If the charge against the eligible client for which services were rendered is one of several charges involving multiple warrants or indictments, the voucher shall indicate the fact and sufficiently identify the several charges so as to enable the court to avoid a duplication of compensation for services rendered. The executive director shall refuse to requisition payment for any voucher which is not in conformity with the record keeping, compensation or other provisions of this article and in such circumstance shall return the voucher to the court or to the service provider for further review or correction.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to modify the time frame for submitted claims for reimbursement. This bill was recommended by Subcommittee A of the Joint Standing Committee on Finance during the 2007-2008 legislative interim session.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
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