Assistant Deputy Public Defender Family
Career series with 3 positions across 3 levels
New Jersey classifies Assistant Deputy Public Defender as a 3-level family, 3 titles in all, built for step-by-step advancement.
Entry is typically through Assistant Deputy Public Defender 1, advancing through the ladder toward Assistant Deputy Public Defender 3. Pay across the family spans $79,844 to $170,731, around the 93rd percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 555 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Office of the Public Defender.
Assistant Deputy Public Defender supervises titles such as Deputy Registrar of Vital Statistics/Keyboarding Clerk and Public Safety Telecommunicator/Clerk.
Positions in This Family
- ASSISTANT DEPUTY PUBLIC DEFENDER 1 (30775) $79,844 - $117,228/year
- ASSISTANT DEPUTY PUBLIC DEFENDER 2 (30776) $100,498 - $148,187/year
- ASSISTANT DEPUTY PUBLIC DEFENDER 3 (30777) $115,536 - $170,731/year
What the Assistant Deputy Public Defender family covers
Assistant Deputy Public Defender is a graded series in the New Jersey civil service classification plan, running 3 title codes across 3 levels. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.
Legal titles in New Jersey split into two groups that look similar and are not. Deputy attorneys general, public defenders and public advocates are unclassified: they are appointed, not examined, and their pay is negotiated inside a schedule rather than earned by stepping through it. Hearing officers, appeals examiners and paralegal support titles are ordinary classified positions filled the usual way. Both groups cluster in Law and Public Safety, the Office of Administrative Law and the agencies that run their own hearings, so the work is closer to administrative adjudication than to courtroom practice.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Ordered by what they actually pay rather than by the number in the title, the Assistant Deputy Public Defender rungs look like this. Here the numbering happens to agree with the pay order, which is not guaranteed elsewhere in New Jersey's plan.
- Assistant Deputy Public Defender 3 — $115,536 to $170,731 (a doctoral degree and 3 years of experience)
- Assistant Deputy Public Defender 2 — $100,498 to $148,187 (a doctoral degree and 2 years of experience)
- Assistant Deputy Public Defender 1 — $79,844 to $117,228 (a doctoral degree)
The distance from the bottom of Assistant Deputy Public Defender 1 to the top of Assistant Deputy Public Defender 3 is $90,887, an increase of about 114% over the entry minimum.
What each title does
Each title in the family carries its own published definition. These are the opening lines of each one, which is usually where the difference between two neighboring rungs is actually stated.
- Assistant Deputy Public Defender 1: Under the close supervision of a Deputy Public Defender, serves in a professional capacity as the civil or criminal…
- Assistant Deputy Public Defender 2: Under the limited supervision of a Deputy Public Defender, serves in a professional capacity as the civil or criminal…
- Assistant Deputy Public Defender 3: Under the general supervision of a Deputy Public Defender, functions as a lead worker, providing guidance to Assistant…
What it takes to qualify
Across the 3 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a doctoral degree on 3 of them. Stated experience runs from 2 years at the lowest rung to 3 at the highest, which is the main thing separating one level from the next.
Every title here carries a license or certification requirement, so the credential matters more than the exam score. On how the jobs are filled: 3 are unclassified, which means appointment at the employer's discretion and salary set individually.
Who actually employs these titles
555 people appear on the state payroll under 3 of these titles, at 1 agency. Office of the Public Defender alone accounts for about 100% of them.
- Office of the Public Defender — 555 employees
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $84,368 for Assistant Deputy Public Defender 1 up to $154,291 for Assistant Deputy Public Defender 3. Those are medians of what people are really paid, not schedule minimums and maximums.
State payroll only, deduplicated by payroll title; local employers file separately, so a family with local codes looks smaller here than it is. How this is counted.
How the pay is set
Titles in this family are paid on the A-P-R-S salary schedule. See every step in that schedule. Bargaining is handled by CWA. Union contracts and rights are collected here.
Where these jobs exist
Hiring for this family runs through state service. Departments, commissions and boards fill these titles from eligible lists built by the Civil Service Commission, so the route in is an announcement and a filing deadline rather than a posting you apply to directly. What state jurisdiction means, and a breakdown of who employs what.
Related titles elsewhere in the plan
These titles sit elsewhere in the classification plan but share vocabulary with Assistant Deputy Public Defender, which usually means overlapping duties or a related eligible list.
- Public Defender ($122,932 to $172,108, state jurisdiction)
- Deputy Public Defender 2 ($83,210 to $116,477, state jurisdiction) — in the Deputy Public Defender family
- Assistant Public Defender ($111,503 to $156,118, state jurisdiction)
- Investigator 1 Public Defender ($69,668 to $101,951, state jurisdiction) — in the Investigator family
- Investigator Aide, Public Defender ($46,727 to $67,528, state jurisdiction)
- Chief Investigator Public Defender ($68,455 to $95,846, state jurisdiction) — in the Chief family
Common questions about Assistant Deputy Public Defender jobs
How many separate Assistant Deputy Public Defender classifications does New Jersey have?
The Assistant Deputy Public Defender family holds 3 title codes arranged across 3 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
How much is an Assistant Deputy Public Defender paid?
Published salary data for this family runs from $79,844 at the bottom of Assistant Deputy Public Defender 1 to $170,731 at the top of Assistant Deputy Public Defender 3. Those are schedule figures. Where the title appears on the state payroll, actual median pay is listed on the page above.
Is there a civil service test for Assistant Deputy Public Defender?
Mostly no. 3 of the 3 titles here are unclassified, so appointment is at the employer's discretion rather than from an eligible list, and salary is set individually rather than by a published step. That also makes cross-agency salary comparison less reliable for these titles.
What are the requirements to become an Assistant Deputy Public Defender?
The most common education requirement in this family is a doctoral degree, named on 3 of the 3 titles. Stated experience ranges from 2 to 3 years depending on the rung. 3 of the titles also require a license or certification. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Which agencies employ Assistant Deputy Public Defender staff?
State payroll records show 555 people in this family across 1 agency, with Office of the Public Defender the largest at 555. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.