For seven years, Dade's judges knew there was something wrong with their system of appointing private lawyers to represent poor criminal defendants.

They knew the system unfairly favored a small fraternity of lawyers.

They knew the system was fueled by patronage: Lawyers gave campaign contributions to the judges; judges gave court- appointed cases to the lawyers.

They knew the system could be exploited by some lawyers who weren't accurate in their billing.

And they knew the system was expensive: It paid $30 million in public money to private criminal defense lawyers from 1985 to 1991.

Instead of fixing the system, however, the criminal court judges merely tinkered with it, and only when public pressure forced them. For years, they instituted cosmetic changes that allowed the same select few lawyers to make six-figure incomes.

In 1985, State Attorney Janet Reno sounded the alarm about Dade's court-appointed lawyers getting $3.5 million in public money, more than half the total amount being spent statewide on "special public defenders" for poor criminal defendants.

Nothing was done.

In 1987, Dade assistant county attorney Hugo Benitez practically begged his superiors to begin auditing the lawyers' bills. An auditor would result in "fewer abuses and lower fees, " he wrote.

Nothing was done.

In 1989, the judges knew that the cost of the system was spiraling out of control. Fees for court-appointed lawyers had doubled to $7 million a year, and one lawyer had made an annual fee of $343,000. In response, Dade's chief judge, Gerald Wetherington, supplanted the itemized billing system with a simpler, minimum-fee system.

"We were constantly trying to contain costs, " Wetherington said. "We wanted to eliminate some of the paperwork and get a good deal for the public."

Nothing had really changed.

A STIFF TAB
A routine court case costs county $37,610

The same small group of lawyers -- most of them former judges and prosecutors friendly with the men and women on the bench -- still reaped six-figure incomes from the system.

And the most routine cases were still costing the county a lot of money.

One example: A trio was charged with stealing gold chains from pedestrians. Their cases never went to trial. The three defendants pleaded no contest and were given reduced sentences. After four brief hearings, the cost to county taxpayers for three court-appointed lawyers and one investigator: $37,610.

In 1991, one of the worst judicial corruption scandals in U.S. history rocked the Dade criminal justice system. Operation Court Broom produced allegations that certain lawyers were paying kickbacks to judges in exchange for court appointments.

Dade's new chief judge, Leonard Rivkind, made further changes. The most dramatic reform: a $75,000 annual income cap for court-appointed lawyers. Rivkind said the changes were not directly related to Operation Court Broom. He assured the public that fees for court-appointed lawyers, in general, were not excessive.

"I would like to point out that the fees paid special public defenders are not clear profit to them, " Rivkind said in December. "It is estimated that from 35 to 45 percent of any fee is absorbed by the lawyer's office overhead."

FINDINGS OF STUDY
Top court officials expressed surprise

In March, The Miami Herald showed Rivkind its findings from an exhaustive study of the system: Since 1988, the top five money-making court-appointed lawyers have made $2.3 million and have charged taxpayers more than 24 hours in a single day over and over again.