The percentage of cases handled by district and summary courts that involved court-appointed lawyers reached a record 72.6 percent in 1998, it was learned Friday.

According to documents compiled by the Judicial Reform Council, an advisory body set up within the Cabinet, fees collected by such attorneys amounted to roughly 4.65 billion yen.

The percentage of cases handled by court-appointed lawyers has been rising steadily since the bubble economy years, the documents show.