Opinion ID: 51486
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Client Visits and Time Keeping

Text: Bower also points to the fact that Buckner only visited him three times in jail as evidence of insufficient preparation. Buckner testified at the evidentiary hearing that he talked with Bower all the time during jury selection. During these times, Buckner testified that they would discuss and swap out information regarding recent developments. Following each day of the trial, he spoke with Bower, his wife, family, and friends and elicited their suggestions and observations, although Bower's family members testified that Buckner usually drank and seemed more concerned with socializing by the pool at the end of the day. The district court, however, found Buckner credible on this point as well, and we find no clear error in its factual finding. Bower argues that Buckner did not spend an adequate amount of time preparing for trial. Time sheets indicate that Buckner worked eighty-six hours on Bower's case between January 20, 1984, and April 10, 1984. For the entire representation, including trial, Buckner billed Bower's family for 407 hours, of which 75.25 hours were billed for Buckner's wife's services and approximately 150 hours were billed for time spent at the trial. Furthermore, according to Bower, Buckner worked on numerous civil matters, tried two civil cases, and appeared regularly in court on thirteen criminal matters in the weeks before Bower's trial. Buckner testified that he spent more time on Bower's case than the 407 hours he billed and that the other cases he tried were minor and required little time. We decline to find ineffective assistance based on the time sheets alone, see United States v. Raineri, 42 F.3d 36, 44 (1st Cir.1994), and it was not clear error for the district court to find that Buckner adequately prepared for the trial, given the obvious effort that Buckner put into his trial preparations, as detailed below.