CJA Resources

This page is meant to provide useful information for attorneys who are members (or who are interested in becoming members) of the Criminal Justice Act panel (“CJA panel”).

Basic Information

The CJA panel consists of attorneys who are authorized to be appointed to represent indigent defendants in federal criminal cases in which the Federal Defender office has a conflict. The Eastern and Southern Districts of New York have separate panels with different procedures for becoming members. The districts also have separate lists of attorneys for the two courthouses in each district (Brooklyn and Cental Islip in the EDNY, and Manhattan and White Plains in the SDNY).

The “CJA Plan” for each district spells out the various rules relating to service on the CJA panel. Those rules cover, among others, the process for selection of panel attorneys, the appointment of CJA counsel in individual cases, compensation of CJA counsel, and the use of experts and other services in CJA cases.

The CJA plans and additional information about applying to the panels can be found at the websites of the two districts.

For the EDNY, go to: https://www.nyed.uscourts.gov/criminal-justice-act-info.

For the SDNY, go to: http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/cja.php

Federal Defender Sponsored Training Programs

Click here to obtain fillable CLE attendance verification and evaluation forms. Completed forms can be sent to NYS_CLE@fd.org.

To access our full list of Training Programs and materials, click here*.

*Password required - to request a password, please contact karen_van_outryve@fd.org, peggy_cross-goldenberg@fd.org, or john_lee@fd.org. You must be a current member of the SDNY and/or EDNY CJA Panel.

Useful Links

Second Circuit Blog: http://blog.federaldefendersny.org/

This blog is maintained by Federal Defender attorneys and provides summaries of recent Second Circuit cases relating to federal criminal law.

Federal Defender website: http://www.fd.org/

The website of the Office of Defender Services Training Branch covers a wide variety of topics useful to federal criminal practitioners.

Sentencing Law and Policy blog, a.k.a. “Berman’s Blog”: http://sentencing.typepad.com/

This blog run by Professor Doug Berman is a great resource for all things related to sentencing.

The Sentencing Resource Counsel Project: https://src.fd.org/

The SRC Project's website makes available a large number of documents and materials from the public record of the USSC that are not currently available on its website and are otherwise difficult to obtain.

Immigrant Defense Project: http://immigrantdefenseproject.org/

The IDP is a non-profit organization dedicated to immigrants’ rights. One of its core missions is to assist criminal defense attorneys representing non-citizen clients. They have a hotline that anyone can call for assistance: 212-725-6422.

United States Sentencing Commission website: http://www.ussc.gov/

The USSC site is particularly helpful in gathering statistics and keeping up to date about changes in the Guidelines and proposals for future changes.

Bureau of Prisons website: http://www.ussc.gov/

You may use this site to find federal inmates and to learn about specific facilities.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums: http://www.famm.org/

If you are interested in policy and advocacy related to mandatory minimum sentences, this is one of the leading organizations. The site also provides useful statistics.