IDS appreciates the Managed Assigned Counsel (MAC) attorneys who traveled to Raleigh to attend one (or both) of two “live” defenderDataworkshops Monday, August 5, 2024, at the North Carolina Judicial Center/N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts.
Attendees experienced a “bonus” in-person training session that covered routine billing/case management procedures within the defenderData vouchering system, including case creation, vouchering, and reporting.
Sheldon Mills, a trainer from JusticeWorks (the system developer), drove in from South Carolina to demonstrate the defenderData case management process from start to finish. Ample time was allowed for questions on specific issues users have encountered since the launch back in June.
Many attorneys seized this valuable opportunity to enter actual case data and submit vouchers with the support of defenderData and IDS staff, right there to assist.
Hugh Bailey has been a MAC attorney/IDS Contractor, taking low level felonies in Lee County since December 2023. He said, “What attracted me to want to become a contractor was the idea of consistent billing and payment.”
“And when you run out of attorneys to do court appointed work, you become the de facto public defender for the county,” he added. “defenderData will definitely make life easier… I believe 100% that the new process gets easier the more you do it, and I think it’s going to be great.”
Brenda Dejewski, assistant to Attorney Jason Wunsch of the Wunsch Law Firm in Harnett County also said the more she uses the system, the more streamlined it becomes.
Dejewski said, for her, the greatest takeaways from the day were the demonstrations on how to do vouchers and how to split time for time waiting in court.
She said, “It’s definitely ‘muscle memory.’ Now that I have seen it and taken some notes, it will be a whole lot better—the more you use it, the more it becomes a no-brainer.”
“This is going to be so much better than the MAC sheet,” she added. “The information on this system is clearer and more specific. With defenderData, so much more information can be entered. And if you use defenderData to its fullest, it’s foolproof and will track everything.”