Ebill - Billable Court Waiting Time

Overview

Attorneys may bill for actual time spent waiting in court for up to two hours per client for each court date.

Attorneys may not bill for more than three hours of waiting time per day for all CPCS clients. Attorneys may not automatically bill three hours per court appearance. The time billed must accurately reflect actual time spent waiting, not to exceed two hours per client or three total hours.

The three-hour daily waiting time limit does not imply that billing three hours or less of waiting time is automatically accepted as reasonable or accurate. Cumulative waiting time hours billed must represent the actual time spent waiting in court that day up to three hours, be properly documented, and be in conformance with all CPCS policies and procedures. 

Waiting time does not include time productively spent in court while waiting for a case to be called. In other words, waiting time does not include time spent talking to the client, witnesses, or the prosecutor; it does not include time spent looking at probation records, reviewing the law, or preparing for argument. (Those tasks should be recorded on your contemporaneous time sheets and billed in the appropriate E-Bill billing category.)

Attorneys should bill their waiting time after they have billed for all other services that day. Attorneys may find that they cannot bill for waiting time if the total number of hours billed for other services equals the actual in-court time worked that day.

For examples, please refer to the linked page below from the Assigned Counsel Manual:

https://www.publiccounsel.net/wp-content/uploads/Assigned-Counsel-Manual.pdf#page=321