Legal Bill Audit Blog

Twice I have heard speakers at my state bar’s annual convention cite to a lawyer’s ethical duty to be a “zealous advocate” when representing a client.  That all lawyers have an ethical duty to be zealous advocates is just something that everyone knows to be factually correct.  Right? Well, not exactly. The plain fact is that the duty of zealous advocacy has...

Things must be returning to normal in the legal world, at least in some places. Last week I reviewed a legal bill where the attorney billed to attend an in-person court hearing. However, as it turned out, the other attorney was a no-show. The attorney noted that the other attorney (or the attorney’s secretary) had...

Invariably, whenever I write a post about a lawyer getting disciplined for an ethics violation involving fee billing, I will get emails. Mostly from individuals with comments or questions about lawyer discipline. And so it was that after my post about an lawyer who got a six month suspension for overbilling, I received emails from...

Some time ago, I had a doctor come to me for help sorting out a large legal bill he had incurred with a large law firm.  He had a Medicare billing problem and had gotten into some trouble with the feds.  Although he incurred several hundred thousand in legal fees from this law firm, the firm did little to resolve his...

With almost daily report of law firm layoffs and/or reductions in compensation, it looks like the COVIS-19 pandemic is going to have the same effect on the financial health of the legal industry as did the Great Recession in 2007-2009.  And if what happened in the Great Recession is any indicator, law firm clients will...

[Note to readers: This is the second part of my blog post on how to discuss fee bill issues with your attorney. If you did not read the first post which was on August 16, I suggest you do so before reading this post. ] Communicating with Your Attorney My prior post left off with...