Legal Bill Audit Blog

If you read my first blog piece in this series, you will recall that I noted ABA Ethics Committee Formal Opn. 93-379 (1993) on Billing for Professional Fees, Costs,  Disbursements, and Other Expenses stated that several Rules of Professional Conduct affect how lawyers ethically can bill for their services. The Opinion specifically mentions RPC 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 3.2,...

In my last post on this subject, I discussed the need to come to an upfront agreement with the attorney handling your case on the appropriate level and mix of any additional attorney staff that might be needed to handle your case. Notwithstanding the need to agree on the attorneys who might be regularly working...

One of the most common complaints I get from individuals who submit gigantic legal bills for me to review is about the number of attorneys who billed to work on their case. The most recent variant of this complaint came from a couple who hired an attorney whom they had determined had the requisite knowledge and...

  The Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company of Kentucky (LMICK) is a malpractice insurer for lawyers. As a proud, long time member of the Kentucky Bar Association, I am on LMICK's newletter mailing list. In a recent LMICK newsletter, I noted that several pages were devoted to legal billing issues. Coming at it from a "risk management"...

[The following is an update of a piece I wrote three years ago. Because of its importance  at this time of year I think the message bears repeating.] There is an old adage that “a lawyer’s pen gets heavier during the fourth quarter.” Invariably, as the year nears an end, lawyers (and paralegals) scramble to find...

Whenever I do a seminar for attorneys on ethics, I always tell them that there are three things they should especially avoid doing: drugs, sex with a client, and messing with a client’s money.  I tell them that if they are caught doing one of these three things, they will find that harsher discipline will...