On October 29, the Indigent Defense Services Commission voted to implement rate hikes for most classes of cases. The Commission’s vote was contingent on North Carolina implementing a state budget with increased funding for NCIDS. The 2021 Appropriation Act (“the Act”), signed into law by Governor Cooper on November 18, included the needed increased funding.
The Commission’s vote included long overdue increases to the rates IDS pays private investigators and mitigation specialists. However, as required by law, we had to work with the NCAOC to revise the standardized fee scales before we could implement the increase.
The following hourly rates will increase for capital expert authorization forms (IDS-28 and IDS-29) submitted for processing on March 1, 2022, or later.
Expert Rate Table
| Work done on or before February 28, 2022 | Work done on or after March 1, 2022 | |
| Licensed Private Investigators | $50 | $55 |
| Capital Mitigation Specialist I | $35 | $40 |
| Capital Mitigation Specialist II | $45 | $50 |
| Capital Mitigation Specialist III | $55 | $60 |
The following hourly rates will increase for non-capital Application and Order for Defense Expert Witness Funding in Non-capital Criminal and Non-criminal Cases at the Trial Level (AOC-G-309) submitted for processing on March 1, 2022, or later.
Expert Rate Table
| Work done on or before February 28, 2022 | Work done on or after March 1, 2022 | |
| Licensed Private Investigators | $50 | $55 |
| Non- capital Mitigation Specialist | $50 | $55 |
Helpful Hints to Ensure Timely and Accurate Payment:
- Work already authorized. If you are currently working against an authorization that was calculated using the old rates, you may want to go ahead and seek additional funding proportionate to rate increase for work performed on or after March 1, 2022.
- New authorizations. Remember to use the new rates when estimating new authorizations. Effective immediately, you should calculate authorization amounts using the new rates. If you would have sought $500 for ten hours of work, you should now seek $550 for the same amount of work.
- Forms. Use the correct forms. An updated AOC-G-309 (Application and Order for Defense Expert Witness Funding in Non-capital Criminal and Non-criminal Cases at the Trial Level) will be available on the NCAOC website on March 1, 2022. Updated IDS expert authorization forms (IDS-28 and IDS-29) will be available on our website on the same date.
The Commission and staff carefully considered how best to allocate the money and are committed to seeking recurring funding that will allow for hourly rates that reflect the value of the work that you do for your clients. We are grateful for the work that you do for indigent clients.