Public Defender Paid Research Study
Listing checked October 16, 2026 · pay as published by Mercor
Overview
Mercor runs a remote research study through Project Mercator and seeks 100 current or former public defenders in the United States. The study asks about the actual work you did, not a polished job description. In the first survey, you map primary responsibilities, tasks, and smaller pieces of work, then note which tasks depend on outputs from other tasks. Wave 1 pays $100 per hour for reviewed survey time, with a 90-minute cap, so the most you can earn is $150 unless the coordinator approves more time. A later phase may invite selected participants to review a combined task tree and add details, with scope and pay confirmed before that phase begins.
What You'll Do9
- 1Map the core duties you handled as a public defender, along with the tasks and subtasks that made up each duty.
- 2Identify which tasks rely on outputs from other tasks, and explain those dependencies in the first survey.
- 3Describe alternate versions of the same task when your practice involved different procedures, courts, or case types.
- 4Follow the written instructions and guidance from the study coordinator while completing the survey.
- 5Stay within the 90-minute reviewed survey window, and contact the coordinator before going past the cap if you need more time.
- 6Join a second survey if selected, review the combined task tree, and add missing details or corrections.
- 7Apply with a resume and a short summary of your public-defense work and availability.
- 8Use your own professional experience and avoid AI-generated answers.
- 9Leave out client names, case numbers, identifying facts, confidential information, and privileged material.
Requirements8
- 1Current or former public defender with hands-on experience representing indigent clients in the United States.
- 2Ability to describe the work you performed, the jurisdiction where you practiced, and the period of your practice.
- 3Prior work on a Mercor project is welcome but not required.
- 4Court-appointed or contract public defense experience counts if you explain the arrangement for review.
- 5Experience only as a prosecutor, law student, legal-content annotator, or lawyer without public-defense experience does not meet the study criteria.
- 6Willingness to complete a remote survey and follow study instructions.
- 7Commitment to safeguard confidentiality and exclude privileged material from your answers.
- 8Availability to review a later task tree if selected for the second survey.
Who Should Apply
Public defenders with direct experience representing indigent clients in the US fit best. The study needs people who can explain their own tasks, jurisdictions, and practice periods, including court-appointed or contract arrangements. Prosecutors, law students, and legal annotators without public-defense work do not qualify.
Salary Insight
Wave 1 pays $100 per hour for reviewed survey time, with a 90-minute cap that puts the maximum at $150. That rate applies to the first survey only. The team will confirm scope and compensation for the later task-tree review before it starts.
Location
Compensation
$100/hr
Required Skills
Application Tip
Name the jurisdiction, dates, and specific public-defense tasks you handled in your short summary. Mention court-appointed or contract work if that describes your role, and keep client names, case numbers, and privileged details out of the application.
How NearSkill helps you apply
1. Check your job match
We compare your resume with the job requirements to help you understand how well your experience fits.
2. Continue to the employer’s website
We’ll direct you to the employer’s application portal, where you can complete the application.
3. Get updates by email
If NearSkill is handling follow-up for this role, we’ll email you when there’s an update on your screening.
Want to check your fit first?
See how your resume matches this role before applying.
Check my job matchSimilar open positions
Explore active roles that match your skills and interests.
Terac
VerifiedLegal Professionals: Paid Engagement on Specialized Workflows
Terac seeks legal professionals for a paid remote engagement that maps how specialized legal workflows happen in practice. The project builds high-quality benchmarks for complex legal reasoning and document analysis. Output from the engagement feeds into software tools that legal teams use. Tasks shift with your domain knowledge, and you log flexible weekly hours through software-based time tracking.
Mercor
VerifiedCybersecurity Practitioner Interviews
Mercor is building a benchmark to test how AI agents handle real enterprise cyber defense work. Before the benchmark takes shape, the team wants to hear from people who do that work day to day. You would join two or three one-hour video calls over about four weeks, paid per hour, with no prep and nothing to build, label, or submit. The conversations center on your actual workflows: the tools you use, what lands in your queue, how your team judges a SOC triage or containment action, and where AI helps or hinders. Experience with an EDR and SIEM stack is a plus.
Mercor
VerifiedProstate Cancer Urologist/Oncologist Survey
Mercor seeks board-certified urologists and medical oncologists in the United States for a paid research study with a leading AI research lab. The work centers on how clinicians evaluate and choose systemic treatments for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. You complete one online survey that takes about 30 minutes. Payment arrives as a single $175 honorarium after Mercor verifies your submission.
Terac
VerifiedMid-to-Senior Policy Professionals: Survey on Current Issues
Terac seeks mid-to-senior policy professionals for a paid survey on emerging public policy trends and current political issues. Your answers help measure how experienced practitioners view legislative changes and the effects those shifts create. The questionnaire runs online and on your own schedule, so you can read policy scenarios and record your assessment when it suits you. It mixes multiple-choice items with short written responses, giving you room to explain your reasoning. Public policy specialists, government relations staff, and legislative affairs experts will find the subject matter tied to their daily work.
Mercor
VerifiedLegal Expert (Remote) - AI Model Evaluation
Mercor maintains an open pool of licensed lawyers who supply legal judgment to the research teams behind top AI models. Work arrives as project-based tasks: drafting a motion or brief from a fact pattern, then writing the reference answer that grades a model's attempt. Other assignments involve scoring model-drafted contract and discovery work, checking whether a privilege call holds, or deciding if a citation supports the claim it backs. The listing stays open even when no project matches your practice area, and new engagements start on short notice. Pay for past projects in this field has ranged from $100 to $150 an hour, with scope and depth setting the exact figure.
Mercor
VerifiedMedical Expert - Remote AI Evaluation & Review
Mercor recruits health professionals who can supply the medical judgment that top AI research teams cannot generate on their own. The medicine pool is an open call, not a single opening, so it remains live while projects start on short notice. When a project launches, you may write a case from your practice with the presentation, workup, constraints, and reference answer that sets the standard for grading a model's attempt. You may also review model output for clinical reasoning, checking whether the differential follows a sensible order, whether a guideline applies to the patient, and whether the care plan is safe to carry out. Mercor sets rates per project, and most work is remote and part-time.