Legal Bill Audit Blog

They're Baaack!!!  "They" are the "summer associates" (aka, law clerks).   These would-be lawyers are eager to learn their future trade and are looking for things to do  . . . like   working on your case.  But should you pay for this work? To use a lawyerly phrase, "that depends." And here are some tips to...

If you have been unable to resolve the fee bill dispute with your lawyer through discussion alone, you may want to consider mediating or arbitrating the dispute. Generally, mediations are informal and are non-binding.  A mediator does not make a decision as does an arbitrator or judge in a case.   But a skilled mediator can...

Can a client recover previously paid fees and costs paid to a lawyer if found to be improperly billed?  The answer is an unqualified "yes!" It makes no difference whether a client has paid some of all of the fees and costs. The ethics of the profession clearly provide that at the termination of the representation,...

Before approaching a lawyer to discuss concerns about the legal bill, a client has to first know exactly what it is being objected to and why. Is it the total amount of the bill being objected to? Is it that certain billed for work does not seem appropriate? Is it that certain billed for costs do...

The ethics of the legal profession requires lawyers to inform their clients “at the outset of the representation” just how they intend to bill for fees and costs and, just as importantly, the basis or how those fees and other charges are going to be determined.  See American Bar Assoc. (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct...

It’s been said with good justification that “a lawyer’s pen gets heavier during the fourth quarter.” Invariably, as the year nears an end, lawyers (and paralegals) scramble to find things to do in their files in order to make their firm’s hourly billing “targets” (i.e., goals) for the year.  I also invariably see more “drop-in” or “transient...