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Criminal Justice Act

Under the Criminal Justice Act, 18 U.S.C. §3006A, all persons charged with federal criminal offenses who are financially unable to obtain counsel are entitled to appointment of counsel to represent them. Under the Court’s Criminal Justice Act (CJA) plan, the Office of the Federal Public Defender is appointed to represent approximately 80% of the financially eligible defendants in the Western District of Arkansas. The remaining eligible defendants are represented by private attorneys. These private attorneys are qualified by the Criminal Justice Act Committee of the Court and admitted to panels of attorneys eligible for appointment in federal criminal cases.

On August 13, 2018, the Western District of Arkansas upgraded to the NextGen electronic case filing system. CJA Attorneys only need one PACER account to file in the Western District of Arkansas as of August 13, 2018. CJA attorneys will need to make sure they have an upgraded, non-exempt PACER account.  No exempt PACER account will be necessary, as CJA attorneys will be able to toggle between exempt and non-exempt status within the NextGen CM/ECF system itself. Follow the instructions below to activate your CJA privileges for this District through PACER

Click here for instructions on how to upgrade your non-exempt individual PACER account.

Click here for instructions on how to register for a new individual PACER account.

Click here for instructions on how to Activate CJA Privileges in PACER.

***These instructions are for existing and newly appointed CJA attorneys who need to be exempt from PACER fees while performing CJA related work.

Click here for instructions on how to utilize CJA Exempt Status in PACER.

***Exempt status will allow the CJA attorney to switch from non-exempt to exempt status when performing CJA related work.

Click here for a CJA Panel Attorney overview tutorial.

 

 

CJA  eVoucher