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Main Page Information for CJA Panel Attorneys Documents and Publications Useful Sites

Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Panel Attorney Resources

Bureau of Prisons Memo New Item

Dated December 20, 2007, this memo outlines new search procedures instituted by the Bureau of Prisons for individuals visiting their facilities. The changes will take effect on January 15, 2008.

Adam Walsh Act Resources

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 was signed into law on July 27, 2006. It established a complex and onerous national sex offender registry law, and made significant changes to sexual abuse, exploitation and transportation crimes, including creating new substantive crimes, expanding federal jurisdiction over existing crimes, and increasing (often by a factor of two or greater) statutory minimum and/or maximum sentences.

Booker Resources

Links to some helpful resources related to Blakely/Booker/Fanfan.

Federal Defense Blogs

The WordNet lexical database at Princeton defines a "blog" as a "shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies". The Federal Defense Blogs provide timely defense highlights from the Supreme Court and the Circuits -- or you can go directly to the Third Circuit blog.

Defender Services Division Training Branch New ItemRecently Updated!

The Defender Services Training Branch in Washington, DC provides support to panel attorneys in CJA cases. The Branch has special expertise in federal criminal law and procedure, including guideline sentencing. The hotline telephone number is 800-788-9908.

PACER - Public Access to Court Electronic Records

Attorneys appointed under the CJA and related statutes are now exempt from payment of electronic public access fees for work that is performed pursuant to such appointment in all federal courts. For information on how to establish an exempt account, contact the PACER Service Center at 800-676-6856.

Attorney Handbook

Written and published by the United States District Court - Western District of Pennsylvania. (PDF format - requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Guidelines for the Administration of the Criminal Justice Act

The appointment of counsel program in this district is governed by the Guidelines for the Administration of the CJA (contained in Volume VII of the Guide to Judiciary Policies and Procedures, and published pursuant to approval of the Judicial Conference of the United States), and the local CJA Plan of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Criminal Justice Act Plan

The local CJA Plan for the Western District of Pennsylvania was last updated on July 28, 2003 (PDF format - requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

This page was last updated on January 2, 2008.