Tips and Policies

Be sure that your fee application is complete.

Our staff often receives fee applications missing information including signatures, dates, and disposition information.  These must be returned before being processed for payment. To receive timely payment, please confirm that your fee application is complete before submitting it to a clerk or judge.

Some fee apps have required attachments: 

• If you are seeking miscellaneous expenses over $25, attach receipts.
• If you are billing for Attorney for the Day, attach the day’s docket.
• If you are a GAL for a respondent parent, attach documentation of the court’s findings for substitutive GAL.
• For Class 3 Misdemeanors, be sure to attach a valid form CR224.

Sign up for direct deposit.

Direct deposit is faster and more reliable than paper checks. If you want to sign up for electronic payments, please submit the direct deposit form available here.

Know the correct rate for the offense class, and know your client’s highest charge:

If your mailing address has changed – even if you are signed up for direct deposit – email us to let us know.  

If your tax ID has changed, or if you have obtained a tax ID number to use instead of your social security number (recommended), email us to let us know.

Make sure fee applications for Class 3 Misdemeanors establish that the client was entitled to appointed counsel.

IDS cannot pay for representation in a Class 3 misdemeanor case unless the client was entitled to appointed counsel.  If you are submitting a fee application where the most serious original charge was a Class 3 misdemeanor, including traffic, make sure that you have attached a valid form CR224.

Click here for a useful document that lists all misdemeanor offenses by class, statute, and offense title. Click here for IDS’s policy on appointment and payment of counsel in Class 3 misdemeanor cases.

Click here for a chart summarizing the types of cases for which a GAL shall or may be appointed, as well as which agency or person is responsible for payment.