Legal invoices that Augusta Law Department didn’t want the public to know about show the local government during some of its worst moments.

The case information redacted from view in the city’s recent response to an open records request shows the names of dozens of plaintiffs injured in crashes involving sheriff’s deputies over the last few years.

The invoices, which the law department un-redacted last week to comply partially with state law, reveal the government’s tendency to involve outside attorneys in many legal matters.

Two related firms – Frails & Wilson and Lyons, Jones & Frails, made up about 42% outside legal spending this year, with the firms billing $310,162 as of Friday.

The law department was created in the late 2000s with the stated purpose of reducing Augusta’s reliance on external legal services. But today, the city spends as much on outside services as it did in 2008 on all legal services, when the department didn’t exist.

The invoices show the two Frails firms’ worked on more than 40 different cases this year, including $38,311 to defend deputies and Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree from lawsuits arising from car crashes and police chases.

While the case had been going on since 2015, Augusta spent $30,645 this year to defend Roundtree and former deputy Thomas L. King from an injury case. Rather than settle it, the case went to trial in Richmond County State Court, where a jury awarded injured passenger, Rodriquez Bostic, $600,000....

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