How the categories work
The trial-level eBill form gives you 13 activity categories (eBill 2.0 User Manual, section 3.3). Every entry gets one. Pick the one that matches the work. If you did two kinds of work for the same client on the same day, that is two entries under two categories. The labels below are what you see on the eBill criminal-trial form, and the examples come from how these categories actually get filed.
| eBill label | What goes here |
|---|---|
| Pre Trial Hearing | Pretrial hearings and conferences, status and lobby dates, and motion hearings. There is no separate motion-hearing line, so a hearing on your motion to suppress or dismiss goes here. |
| Admsn/Plea Hearing | Arraignments, plea hearings, and admissions to sufficient facts. |
| Trial | Time actually on trial, bench or jury. |
| Post Conv Hearing | Post-conviction hearings, including probation violation and surrender hearings (VOP). |
| Draft Mot Lgl Memo | Drafting and revising motions (to suppress, in limine, to continue, for funds), legal memos, affidavits, and habeas petitions. |
| Prep-Hrg/Trial | Getting ready for a hearing or trial: reviewing discovery, going over your own drafts, prepping the client to testify, and calls or emails with co-counsel. |
| Court Waiting Time | Time waiting at the courthouse for your case to be called. Its own line, not folded into the hearing. |
| In Prsn Client Int | Meeting your client, in person or by video: jail and lockup visits, office meetings, a sit-down at the courthouse. |
| Client Tel. Contact | Phone calls and messages with your client. A call to the DA or a caseworker does not go here. |
| Legal Research | Researching and writing the legal argument: case law, statutes, reviewing a decision. |
| Investigation | Contacting anyone other than your client or the judge to build the case: the DA or ADA, court clerks, DCF and DYS caseworkers, probation, experts, investigators, witnesses, transcribers. A call to the prosecutor about a plea goes here. |
| Travel | Travel to and from court, the jail, and client meetings. |
| Other | Work that fits nothing above, like a call to the house of correction about filings. |
The ones people get wrong
A call with the DA is Investigation, not Client Contact
Client Tel. Contact is for your client. The moment you are on the phone with the prosecutor, a court clerk, a DCF or DYS worker, an expert, or a witness, that is Investigation. This is the miscategorization I see most, and it matters because contacting third parties is a real part of a criminal case, sometimes the biggest part.
Court waiting time is billable, on its own line
The time you spend at the courthouse waiting for your case to be called goes under Court Waiting Time. Do not bury it inside Trial or the hearing, and do not skip it. Across a year of arraignment sessions it is real money.
Prep, drafting, and research are separate lines
Reviewing discovery and getting ready for a hearing is Prep-Hrg/Trial. Writing the motion itself is Draft Mot Lgl Memo. Looking up the case law behind it is Legal Research. One afternoon can touch all three, and each has its own category.
Appeals, CAFL, and federal are different
This is the Massachusetts trial-level set. Appellate cases and federal CJA work each have their own lists: see the categories for Massachusetts appeals and the CJA eVoucher categories. Children and Family Law (CAFL) gets its own page soon.
How Plani handles categories for you
You do not pick from a dropdown. You text what you did, like "call to the ADA about a plea," and Plani assigns the category, Investigation in that case, and shows you its pick. If you want it under a different category, tell it and it refiles. It remembers the case type for each client, so it stops asking. When it files into eBill, your time lands in the right column.