The CPCS hourly rate calculator computes either the hourly rate that will result in a net income for a bar advocate, or will compute the net income for a bar advocate given an hourly rate.

The CPCS hourly rate calculator is based on the assumption that a bar advocate, working both for indigent clients at a government rate and for private clients at a market rate, should be able to enjoy a lifestyle that is on parity with a prosecutor or an assistant attorney general. Wages for prosecutors and AGs are lower than other attorneys who work for the Commonwealth -- this is not addressed by the calculator.

The CPCS hourly rate calculator begins by computing the number of hours available to the attorney. The user enters the number of days for vacations and sick days per year, and the number of hours per day. The CPCS hourly rate calculator then computes the total available hours, based on a five day workweek, and 10 court holidays per year.

The CPCS workload is established by computing the number of cases per bar advocate per year, based on the total cases and the number of attorneys (from CPCS Annual Report to the Legislature). The time spent per case is computed from the most recent CPCS Annual Report to the Legislature, which sets out the ratio of criminal to civil cases, and the average hours billed for criminal and for civil cases. The aggregate case is calculated, and multiplied by cases per attorney to compute the hours billed for CPCS cases for the typical bar advocate.

A factor to uplift the billable hours to hours spent, nominally set to 15%, is entered to account for non-compensated work done on behalf of indigent clients

The CPCS hourly rate calculator now computes the number of hours to be dedicated to the Private component of the bar advocate's practice, by subtracting the CPCS hours from the total available hours. The billable private hours are computed by subtracting a percentage of time that is not billable for the private client (nominally set to 25%), from the time remaining after CPCS indigent work is completed.

The billable hourly rate for private clients, and the overhead rate, are taken from the Altman Weill 2003 study of small law firms, as cited in recent documents relating to federal panel attorney pay

The CPCS hourly rate calculator can compute the hourly rate needed to provide parity with the starting salary of a beginning assistant district attorney, in take home pay. The calculator asks for the starting salary of an assistant District Attorney, and the uplift to cover benefits (social security contribution, medical benefits, etc.). The default value is taken from public records.

At any time, you can load the parameters that are supplied by the sources cited, by clicking your mouse on the large red button in the upper right of the screen, which is labeled "Load Default Values", and then click the purple button that is labeled "Calculate Rates". Alternatively, you may click the mouse on any field that has a solid color background, and type a new value for that field. Fields that are displayed as a percentage must be entered as a fraction less than one (eg .2 for 20%). You may tab between fields, to enter new data in any or all of the fields in the calculator. Finally, one can either supply the hourly rate of pay, and allow the calculator to compute income/loss from CPCS, Private and Total business, or one can click the mouse on the purple button that is labeled "Calculate Rate", and the calculator will compute the hourly rate that would provide a net income to the bar advocate, from both CPCS and private work, that would yield a take home comparable to the salary entered for the Assistant DA. For convenience, the calculator may be printed to a single page on a printer.

The CPCS hourly rate calculator is a PDF document with calculations and Javascript to effect the necessary calculations, and was created in Acrobat version 5.0 by Thomas Workman