Instructions For Court Appointed Counsel Misdemeanor/Traffic Appointment of Counsel Procedures

1.  If you have been appointed to represent an individual charged in the Traffic Division with misdemeanors or traffic infractions, or in the District Court charged with misdemeanors, you should have received the following forms: 1) "ORDER APPOINTING COUNSEL - MISDEMEANOR CASE / VOUCHER FOR SERVICES" and 2) "Application for Appointed Defense Services" with "Financial Affidavit". The order should have been signed and dated by the judge. If not, you should contact the court to have the order approved as soon as possible.

2.  If your client has not yet completed the "Application for Appointed Defense Services" and "Financial Affidavit", this should be accomplished ASAP. It must be approved by the court. This may or may not have already occurred. The bailiff will be able to verify whether this has been done previously. You should not incur substantial time on the merits of the matter until this affidavit has been approved by the court. YOU SHOULD OBTAIN AND KEEP A COPY OF THE AFFIDAVIT; IT CONTAINS YOUR CLIENT'S ADDRESS AND PHONE INFORMATION.

3.  The original or cover copy of your order of appointment should be filed with the Clerk of the Court immediately. The other copies are retained for use in submitting your voucher later.

4.  Your appointment will automatically terminate when any of the following events has occurred:

• Disposition by acquittal, dismissal, diversion or plea/trial and sentencing.
• As to probation, parole or suspended sentence revocations, the conclusion of the hearing on the revocation and any motion to reinstate made at that time. Your appointment does not automatically continue to include sentence modification or reinstatement issues unless specifically so ordered by the court.
• If a failure to appear occurs, your appointment will terminate after 30 days have passed without the arrest or surrender of your client.

5.  Be prepared to submit your voucher in the form of copies 2 and 3 of the appointment order at the time of the final hearing. If circumstances prevent this, it must be submitted within 10 days or YOUR SERVICES MAY BE DEEMED PRO BONO.

6.  Submission of the voucher is as follows: Copy 2 and 3 go directly to the Office of the Court Administrator. Copy 4 is retained by you.

7.  Unless the case is deemed to be an exceptional case, you will be paid according to the following schedule (effective for attorneys appointed on or after January 1, 2005):

8.  The above fees include ordinary expenses such as mileage, phone, postage etc. Extraordinary expenses (long distance, collect calls, expert witnesses etc.) must be approved by the court.

9.  Exceptional fees and extraordinary expenses must be approved by court order and attached to your voucher.