H. B. 2425
(By Delegates Staton, Azinger, Hutchins,
Beane and L. White)
[Introduced March 5, 1997; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section thirteen-a, article twenty- one, chapter twenty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
reimbursement of the cost of transcripts provided by
official court reporters; and, requiring public defender
services to keep computer records of payments made for such
transcripts.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirteen-a, article twenty-one, chapter
twenty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, 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 after
the last date of service shall be rejected.
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
such 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
such an interim basis, when
combined with any
such 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.
(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,
such 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
such 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 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
such
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 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
twenty-five
cents the cost per
copy page
as provided for under section four,
article seven, chapter fifty-one of this code. 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 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
such 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.
(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, 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
such 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 reimburse appointed
counsel for the transcript fees charged by official court
reporters at the statutory rates required in the West Virginia
Code, and facilitate such payment to official court reporters.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that
would be added.