When a client is ordered to pay attorney fees, that client’s social security number on the fee application is used by the State to recoup attorney’s fees. The General Assembly directs this collected money to the IDS Private Assigned Counsel Fund and it provides nearly $10 million a year to contract and private assigned counsel. To get that money into that fund, you must put your client’s social security number on the fee application (Form AOC-CR-225).
We understand it may feel adverse to the attorney-client relationship. It is a statutory requirement, and the courts advise clients of this at first appearance and at sentencing.
Here are some practice tips from the field:
- Setting expectations: When you meet with your client, get the social security number and explain that if they are convicted, they will be asked to pay their attorney’s fees back to the state. If the charges are dismissed or the client is acquitted, they will not be asked to repay the state.
- How will the state collect the money? The client may be asked to repay their attorney’s fees as a condition of probation. The alternative is that a civil judgment is entered against them. Money is collected on the civil judgments mostly through intercepts of tax refunds and lottery winnings. If the client can manage the repayments through probation, that would avoid the negative credit consequences of having a civil judgment lodged against them. Unlike other civil judgments, a judgment in favor of the State of North Carolina has no expiration date.
- Court advocacy: By statute, the judge has no discretion to waive attorney’s fees. However, when you tell the judge your time, you may wish to explain any circumstances that were beyond the client’s control that required you to spend additional hours on the matter (for example, repeated continuances). The client also has a right to be heard before the judge orders repayment.
For a discussion of the court’s responsibility and the client’s rights in a recoupment hearing, see State v. Friend, 257 N.C. App. 516, 809 S.E.2d 902 (2018).
See below for more information about filing fee applications, including how the client’s privacy is protected: