FAQ: ATTY07, case related communications, has disappeared from dData?

Question: I am an attorney, and I took a call from a client this morning. I tried to bill this to ATTY07, but that task code is no longer available in defenderData. 

   Where did ATTY07 go, and why was it deleted?

Answer: After a week of experience with the new codes, many have written regarding the overlap between COMM02 -- communicate with client -- and ATTY07 – conduct other case related communications. In light this confusion, the Steering Group has asked defenderData to eliminate ATTY07 as a task code.

All billing to ATTY07 for the week of June 16 through June 22 has been re-designated as, “COMM02” – communicate with client. (This June task code data, incidentally, will not be used for anything related to the Work Measurement Study).

Unlike the old defenderData codes, which had a number of client-communication options, the new codes are designed to capture almost all client communications in COMM02. In the future, we anticipate that almost all client communication will be billed to COMM02. This will be more accurate data, easier to remember, and will avoid divided billing with ATTY07.

Note that two other communication codes also remain available: COMM01, and COMM03.

To the extent that the Study needs to identify time attorneys spend communicating with their clients, this data can be determined by correlating the employee’s role codes with the COMM02 task code. The same availability of correlated data applies to the other two communication codes.

While COMM02 is the “go to” task code for communicating with our clients, there are several other remaining task codes that also contain client-communication subtasks. Those codes may, on occasion, be appropriate, depending on the work at hand. They are summarized below.

These additional task codes, however, generally cover other tasks as well as client communication. One example is ATTY05, that covers initial appearances. The application of these other codes will usually be self-evident. Most client communication, we anticipate, will be best described by COMM02: client phone calls, client meetings, and jail visits all fall within that code.

We appreciate that the task codes and Work Center Descriptions are far from perfect, and suffer from errors and overlap. The deletion of ATTY07 is one example, but certainly not the only issue brought to our attention since June 16.

Please bear in mind when working with these tools that the Work Measurement Study was advanced a full year by the Administrative Office. Because of this accelerated schedule, this new system -- originally intended to take eighteen months to design -- was completed in less than six. In addition, many different members of our community have weighed in with revisions to these documents. Some errors have naturally crept in during this collaborative process. The mid-June roll-out of defenderData was a very deliberate date, to give all of us an opportunity to identify these bugs and correct them.

The Steering Group appreciates your patience as we work through these task codes and WCDs together, to provide for greater accuracy during the fall collection periods.

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Other Task Codes that can involve client communication:

CJA01 3.1 ASSIGN CASE TO CJA PANEL

3.1.1 Communicate/assist client with financial affidavit, questions, etc.

LA01 4.1 PERFORM GENERAL OFFICE DUTIES

4.1.1 Greet and direct clients and visitors, advise necessary persons of visitor arrivals and purpose of visit

LA02 4.2     PROVIDE TRIAL / HABEAS / HABEAS APPEAL SUPPORT

4.2.1 Print ECF notices; distribute to attorney; copies to client if applicable

COMM01 8.1 ARRANGE COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENT AND SUPPORT SERVICES

8.1.1 Correspond with client, e.g., review and reply to letters, calls, obtain all necessary releases

FORN01 9.1 INTERPRET AND TRANSLATE

INVE13 10.13 ATTEND AND ASSIST AT COURT PROCEEDINGS – ATTORNEY SUPPORT

10.13.1 Confer with client and family

ATTY02  12.2 REPRESENT CLIENT DURING COOPERATION

ATTY05 12.5 APPEAR IN COURT FOR INITIAL COURT APPEARANCES AND DETENTION PROCEEDINGS

12.5.1 Complete Financial Affidavit and Client Intake Sheet

ATTY19 12.19 PREPARE FOR SENTENCING HEARING

12.19.1 Review/correct final judgment and attachments with client

APP07 13.7 DRAFT AND FILE PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI AND OTHER PLEADINGS IN UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

13.7.6 Review decision and confer with client

APP08 13.8 PREPARE FOR RETROACTIVE RESENTENCING LITIGATION
13.8.1 Identify/contact eligible clients

       

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FAQ: Task codes, Reentry / Drug Court?

Question: I understand that reentry / drug court cases now have their separate case codes in defenderData when they are opened, and I am billing work on those cases to those clients. 
   I'm not sure, however, what task codes to use for work in alternative courts. What task codes should I be using when representing clients in reentry / drug court?

Answer: We recommend the following task codes be used:

ATTY21 12.21 PREPARE FOR VIOLATION PROCEEDINGS      - 12.21.4 Represent client in sentence modification/compliance proceedings

ATTY22 12.22 APPEAR IN COURT FOR VIOLATION PROCEEDINGS
   As with other clients, other codes, such as COMM02 - Communicate and / or Meet with Client -- may also be appropriate.

   As noted in the question, it is important that this work is billed to the specific client in the alternative court programs. Recent revisions to Chapter 18 have meant that more-accurate data will now be available for this work, because these cases now have their own specific case-codes when opened in defenderData. 

   If the above tasks are billed to an alternative-court client,
it will be clear during the data analysis that this work was related to alternative courts.

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FAQ: Motion work, and Task Codes ATTY08 and ATTY09

Question:
I am confused about which task code to use because there is substantial overlap between ATTY08, Research and Draft Motions/Habeas Pleadings and ATTY09, Prepare for Hearings on Motion/Pre-Trial, Post-Trial, or Habeas Proceedings. Both seem to describe research, preparing and drafting motions, pleadings, etc.  We have decided to interpret ATTY08 to apply for substantive legal research and writing in the case, and ATTY09 to apply to other preparation for motions that is not drafting a pleading.

Answer:
That is a reasonable interpretation of a duplication in the task codes. ATTY08 is better used for preparing substantive motions: for example, writing and filing the suppression motion.

ATTY09 is best used when there is additional research, and possible supplemental motion work, on the eve of or after the hearing. For example, a late-breaking case requires a supplemental brief before a hearing, an evidentiary issue needs to be briefed mid-hearing, or the Court has asked for supplemental briefing on a discrete issue after a hearing.

We anticipate that the majority of the billing in this area will be to ATTY08, as we research, prepare, and draft motions, memoranda and briefs relating to (non-sentencing) issues. Sentencing motion work should be billed to its own tasks, ATTY18 and ATTY19.

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FAQ: Task code erroneously limited to NCR, should have NCR / CASE choice

Question:
I am having trouble billing a task code to a case in defenderData.  Some of the task codes are only coming up if I select the "NCR" (non case related) type, but are unavailable when I select the "Case" type. Please advise.

Answer:
This is a technical issue that is being addressed.

  defenderData is designed to permit billing to non-case related matters. However, where appropriate, billing should be case-specific. This requires the ability to code to "CASE" instead of "NCR" -- "CASE" will trigger our client's names.

  When we launched the newly-configured dData on June 16, 2014, some task codes that should have been available for both Case and NCR types were only coming up as available for NCR.  That was the our error, not Justice Works (the defenderData company).

We have contacted JusticeWorks and have corrected problems with CASE / NCR arise. Note that some task codes are deliberately programmed to be specific to NCR, to avoid erroneous billing (such as ADM07, Administer Budget). If, however, you find a code currently limited to NCR, that you believe should have access to CASE billing, please let the Steering Group know - we're trying to get all of these corrected before July 1.

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FAQ: Out-of-District (OOD) work?

Question:  

I am an investigator. I've been asked by an attorney in another district to do some investigation here in my home district. 

I understand that I am suppose to bill to CASE / and OOD, but don't know how to bill to the client in another district?

Answer:

Revisions in defenderData allow us to bill to the client for Out-of-District work (OOD). To do so, you'll need the case number from the requesting district.

Ask the requesting district to get you the case number for the case, when they make the request. Below are illustrations of where that number can be found.

If you put that case number in for OOD work, you will bill to that client (without having access to the confidential details of that client's case).

This precision in OOD is very important, because we want OOD work to tie in with the Workload Drivers associated with that case. Anyone requesting help out of district must provide that other office the case number illustrated below, to permit this more-accurate billing.

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Case Edit Screen

Case Search Screen

Timesheet Screen

FAQ: DSO reporting requirements, and new dData Task Codes?

Question:

Our office is required to submit reports to DSO every month, derived from our defenderData timekeeping records. How will these changes  to the dData task codes affect our DSO reporting requirements? 

 

Answer:

Cait and the DSO staff have been deeply involved in the revisions to the task codes in dData, and strongly supports this project. DSO is accommodating these changes and the necessary transition required. 

 

On June 16, 2014, Deputy Director Rebecca Blaskey sent an email to all Defenders, Executive Directors, and AdO's with further guidance on the dData reporting requirements to DSO. If you are involved in office reporting requirements, please review Rebecca's email, titled, "Modified Version of Timekeeper."

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FAQ: Non-Capital Habeas Task Codes

 

Question: Where are the task codes for non-capital habeas cases?

 

Answer: The task codes for non-capital habeas cases are in the "Non-Trial Packet" and explained in the associated Work Center Description. 

 

That Non-Trial packet can be found here. 

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FAQ: Leave during fall data collection periods

 

 

Question:

Can leave be taken during the fall 2014 data collection period?

 

Answer:

Leave policies remain firmly and solely within the discretion of the office's Defender or Executive Director (subject, of course, to controlling laws and regulations).

Please speak to your Defender or Executive Director for guidance on the leave policies in the office, for the fall data collection period.

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FAQ: Remote access to dData

Question:
Is it possible to access defenderData remotely?

Answer:
Yes. There is a web version, of dData, and a mobile client.  

To access the web version, or to use the mobile client, please speak to your Defender or Executive Director, and your CSA. Special settings to permit this access must be enabled within defenderData, to permit remote use.

There are efforts underway by the SG to facilitate easier remote access. Stay tuned for further updates throughout the summer.

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FAQ: Guidance on supervision?

 

Question:

When a lawyer works with an assistant, is the time entered as an attorney or a supervisor?

 

Answer:

Select the task code that most accurately describes the actual work that you are doing with your assistant.  The ATTORNEY (ATTY) task code prefix will probably be most accurate, and we anticipate it will be used in most cases. Time spent working together on legal matters, in defense of the case, should be billed to a legal / litigation task code and that case, and not to supervision.

 

For example, if a supervisor is reviewing and editing a pretrial motion to suppress, and collaborating on theories set forth in that motion, that supervisor's work should be billed to CASE / CLIENT NAME / ATTY08. Both the supervisor and the AFPD or AFD are together working on researching and drafting motions, to defend the case.

The SUPERVISION (SUPE) task code contemplates a limited number of tasks, including assigning and distributing workload, evaluating employee performance, mentoring, etc. 

 

 

 

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FAQ: Billing brainstorming

Question:

Do I enter time on a case if all I am doing is briefly brainstorming with a lawyer about his or her case? 

Answer:

Yes. Every task you do, even if it does not take much time, matters for purposes of the Work Measurement Study and should be accurately recorded in defenderData.  

Brainstorming inevitably involves a subject, that can be associated with a task. To bill these meetings, find the task code that is most representative of the subject of your brainstorming session. For example, did you help a colleague brainstorm about which issues to raise on appeal for his client? If so, bill to APP02, Conduct Appellate Research (WorkCenterDescription 13.2.03 (consult with peers, paralegals, RWS).

Are you together weighing the merits of a pretrial motion to suppress evidence, and discussing Fourth Amendment theories? If so, ATTY08, Research and Draft Motions / Habeas Pleadings) would be the appropriate task code.

The general term "brainstorming" does not fairly reflect the work we do to defend a case, and in the past has lead to non-descriptive billing. (It is part of the reason that "MOTH" - "Meeting / Other" was the most-popular billing code for the last decade). "Brainstorming" was deliberately omitted from the new task codes, to encourage us all to better describe the actual work we're doing to serve our clients. 

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FAQ: Legal Assistants, Receptionists, other non-traditional timekeepers - when to start timekeeping?

Question:

Although the data collection period does not begin until the fall of 2014, can all staff start entering time on June 16, 2014?

 

Answer: 

Technically, yes. However, whether all staff keep time now is left up to the discretion of the Defender or Executive Director in your office. It is not required by the Work Measurement Study.

 

Generally, the Work Measurement Study has two phases.  Beginning June 16, 2014, current timekeepers (attorneys, investigators, paralegals, translators, and some CSAs and ACSA's) will continue to keep time but will make the switch to timekeeping using the new defenderData task codes.

 

For the fall 2014 data collection period, every employee in the Federal Defender Organization will keep time in the newly-configured defenderData.  

 

Whether non-traditional timekeepers (legal assistants, receptionists, AdO's, etc.) start keeping time now is at the discretion of the Defender or Executive Director. It is not, however, required by the Work Measurement Study.

 

 

 

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FAQ: Help coding Workload Drivers, in June 2014

 

Question:

I'm an attorney, and am starting to code my own cases with the Workload Drivers now. 

Can the Defender in an office designate a case manager to code the workload drivers?

Answer:

Please DO NOT code any Workload Drivers, without explicit direction by your Defender or Executive Director.

For the vast majority of offices, the Workload Drivers do not need to be coded until the fall data collection period. That is the planned deployment schedule for dData and the Work Measurement Study.

The Steering Group will be providing additional training webinars over the summer, on the proper coding of Workload Drivers.

Some offices are voluntarily coding the drivers now, in June, and will be coding the Workload Drivers through the summer and the fall collection periods. Defenders in those offices have chosen to undertake this early coding, to provide additional data for later analysis.

Coding the Workload Drivers is a substantial undertaking, requires much coordination and training, and a great deal of quality control. If the Workload Drivers are entered now, in the Spring, their coding must must be very accurate. This coding project can, therefore, only be undertaken at the direction of the Defender or Executive Director. Please do not code the workload drivers now, in the Spring of 2014, absent explicit direction from your Defender or Executive Director.

Defenders and Executive Directors who are interested in voluntarily coding Workload Drivers now should contact the Steering Group, for advice on the procedures we recommend for training and coding. Some members of the Steering Group are part of this Spring coding effort, and can advise on the use of a case manager, "a Driver Driver") to help with the Workload Driver coding effort.