To file, most lawyers mail documents to the clerk's office.

Maultasch, Trinchet-Martinez and Marin -- three of the biggest money-making lawyers -- reproduced and signed a simple, one-page document from case to case.

In the space of a single page, the document notified the court that a defendant was pleading not guilty, and several other routine motions.

Since at least 1984, Maultasch has been charging one hour in each of his cases for preparing and filing a boilerplate document. In 1988-1989 alone, he made more than $3,000 for preparing and filing it.

Trinchet often charges 45 minutes for "preparing" the document. On May 6, 1987, Trinchet billed 6 hours and 45 minutes for reproducing it in 10 separate cases for one defendant, Marcello Varona.

On that day, Trinchet managed to bill the county for a total of 20 hours of legal work and still find the time to speak at Judge Catherine Pooler's investiture.

Mastos billed 10 times for reproducing the same three routine documents in 10 separate cases on the same day, running up 10 1/2 billable hours. Mastos said he charged an hour for each document even though it didn't take him an hour because he considered it a "start-up" fee.

"If you bill me three hours for something that took 2 1/2 hours, that is padding, " Marquess said. "But when you bill me 10 hours for something that clearly took you an hour, that is way beyond bill-padding. That is way beyond sloppy time-keeping.

"That's fraud."

THE WAITING GAME
Minutes become hours on bills

Lawyers regularly billed two to four hours for routine plea hearings that took mere minutes to resolve in court.

Lawyers are allowed to bill for waiting time, but The Herald found that several lawyers regularly charged from two to seven hours every time they stepped into a courtroom -- even for proceedings that lasted only a few minutes.

Maultasch charged for seven hours of court-time before noon on May 1, 1989 -- meaning court would have had to start at 5 a.m. that day. "I have never heard of court being in session at that time of the morning, " said John Hogan, a chief assistant state attorney for State Attorney Janet Reno.

Maultasch says he made a mistake because he wasn't keeping track of his hours as he worked them.

Ray Badini, a lawyer who handled some court-appointed cases for Huttoe, billed seven hours for a brief hearing that occurred on Oct. 24, 1988. He charged four hours in the morning, and three more hours in the afternoon -- even though the hearing started at 1:30 p.m. and lasted less than 15 minutes, the transcript shows.

MISSING IN ACTION
Being absent still pays off

On Sept. 8, 1988, Trinchet billed 3 hours and 15 minutes for two depositions that she did not attend, according to records in the court file.

The two depositions lasted 35 minutes, the transcripts show. The court-appointed lawyer for a co-defendant, Gerardo A. Remy Jr., took the depositions and billed the county only one hour, or $40.

That was $90 less than Trinchet was paid for not being there.

Trinchet and Remy's case involved three men who were arrested trying to take property away from another man in a parking lot.

Trinchet's final bill for the case was $2,127.50.

That was more than double Remy's bill of $950.

An assistant public defender represented the third co- defendant. The office's average cost of handling a case: $130.

In another case, Trinchet billed -- and was paid -- twice. The defendant, Rodney Durant, was a petty thief. In May 1988, she charged $2,270 for representing Durant in a case that ended with a plea bargain after just three weeks. In February 1989, she submitted a second bill for $1,725.