Christopher Tilman put in long hours last year. Impossibly long hours, according to invoices he submitted to the county.

On June 5, 2006, Tilman claimed, he worked more than 37 hours at $100 per hour. He charged the county for more than 35 hours worked on April 6 and also on April 19.

Tilman billed for more hours than a day contains on 22 separate occasions in the first half of 2006.

Neither the judges assigning Tilman to cases, nor the court administrators and county financial managers reviewing the bills, noticed the obvious overbilling.

The situation exemplifies the county's lax oversight of a system in which attorneys are assigned by judges to represent poor defendants. It also highlights problems in Clark County Family Court that stem from caseloads that have spiraled out of control.

In interviews, Tilman said he did not know he had overbilled and speculated that the work he reported doing might have included other attorneys helping him.

"I pride myself on being honest in my billing," he said. "I know last year I worked my butt off compared to other years."

The county's system for reviewing invoices could not have caught Tilman's errors because the attorney did not bill for an excessive amount on any given case, said Clark County Court Administrator Chuck Short.

It was the volume that created problems.

Tilman's invoices show that he worked on at least 269 cases in Family Court last year, most assigned to him in the first half of 2006.

In 185, Tilman represented parents in abuse and neglect cases. In another 54, he defended mothers or fathers who risked permanently losing parental rights.

Tilman got so much work in part because three attorneys from the county special public defender's office declined to take any more than 80 cases. The county agency has since added two new attorneys to help alleviate the need for so many appointments.

Between 2000 and 2005, the number of cases in Family Court grew from 41,297 to 59,478, an increase of 44 percent.

Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle, who assigned Tilman to many of the termination cases, said no single bill that crossed his desk raised a red flag.

"That's something that very obviously needs to be addressed," Hardcastle said. "I'm the judge who signed the vouchers, but it's really a systemic problem."

Hardcastle scoffed at the idea that Tilman, whom he refers to as a friend, may have gotten a disproportionate number of appointments as payback for $900 in campaign contributions to the judge's re-election campaign in 2004.

"In the election before that, he gave my opponent $500," Hardcastle said. "He was one of the people who contributed last time. A lot of other people gave more."

A county committee that reviews attorney invoices has flagged 40 suspicious bills since 2001, saving the county about $220,000. But none of Tilman's invoices were among them.

"At the case level, we've accomplished something," Short said. "At the attorney level, we have a weakness, and we're taking measures to solve that."

County Comptroller Ed Finger said his office checks the bills for proper authorization and mathematical accuracy and does not conduct an audit on each invoice.

Short said court officials are reviewing Tilman's billing practices.

Hardcastle and other judges praised Tilman's dedication and competence.

Hardcastle said Tilman has become one of the few specialists in abuse and parental termination cases by virtue of the sheer number of these cases he has handled.

But Angella Tiger, whose case was assigned to Tilman last year, expressed a different opinion.

"He never called me, and I never had any contact with him," said Tiger, who was assigned Tilman to help her make final arrangements to adopt a foster child. "We're back to square one now."

Despite having never spoken to Tiger, Tilman billed the county for $400 on her case.

Less clear is why Tilman also was appointed to 30 juvenile delinquency cases by judges apparently unaware of his workload in other departments in Family Court.

Family Court Judge William Voy, who made some of those appointments, said he was dismayed by the newspaper's findings.

"I'm really concerned about this process," Voy said. "This kind of stuff is unacceptable."

Voy, who said he lobbied court administration to add two contract attorneys to his courtroom, said he and other Family Court judges no longer appoint Tilman to juvenile delinquency cases.

Voy said the payment and appointment system in Family and District Courts is in such disrepair that problems are inevitable.

"I can fix my shop, but that's just part of the puzzle," Voy said. "With the kind of money being spent, you'd think the county would be more proactive in finding solutions."

Christopher Tilman charged the county $3,780 for 37.8 hours he claimed to have worked on June 5, 2006.

GRAND TOTAL IN COURT AND OUT OF COURT = 37.8 HOURS

DA=District Attorney DFS=Department of Family Services PO=probation officer