how to detect bill padding from attorney

Asking for detailed records is often an important step when you suspect financial misconduct by a lawyer. A careful review of what they claimed to have spent time doing for your case can help you determine if they intentionally padded their invoice to overcharge you or if you merely underestimated how much effort they had to invest in your case.

Full Answer

Is block billing hiding attorney Bill padding?

In our prior version of this arbitration advisory titled “Detecting Attorney Bill Padding” (Arbitration Advisory 2003-01)(January 29, 2003), at section C 4 on page 7, the State Bar’s Committee on Mandatory Fee Arbitration opined that block billing “hides accountability and may increase time by 10% to 30%.

How does the staffing of a legal matter affect bill padding?

The staffing of a legal matter by a lawyer presents the potential for bill padding that an arbitrator may consider. The main staffing issues that should be assessed include:

How often do lawyers pad their bills?

Just as shocking were what lawyers concluded about their colleagues' billing practices: 55% said that lawyers occasionally or frequently "pad" their hours; 64% said they were personally aware of lawyers who had padded their bills.

Is there evidence of billing abuses by lawyers?

It's sometimes easy to pick out the most extreme examples of bad behavior and claim they are "proof" of widespread abuse. But there are so many anecdotal accounts of incredible billing abuses by lawyers that it's hard to choose among them.

How do you prove overbilling?

Some examples of overbilling by a law firm include:Padding a bill, charging for work that was not actually done;Performing legal work that is wholly unnecessary;Inefficient work, billing far more than is reasonable; and.Overstaffing a case without legitimate cause.

What is bill padding?

When a lawyer's fee bill overstates the amount of time spent for work performed, it is called “bill padding.” If a client alleges that a lawyer's bills are not accurate or truthful, how can an arbitrator assess the evidence, including the fee bills, for possible bill padding?

What is it called when a lawyer overcharges you?

Examples Of Overbilling While the act of overbilling can simply be a lawyer overcharging for services, there are numerous ways this can occur, for example: Padding a bill: This occurs when a lawyer lies about how much time was spent on a matter. By overstating time spent, the bill becomes inflated.

How do attorneys track their time?

1) The legal software stopwatch The stopwatch is a tried and true means to track time. Most modern legal software systems provide this time-tracking feature. For example, if a lawyer opens a case file, there's usually a digital stopwatch they can click to begin tracking the time spent on a task.

What is block billing?

Block billing is the practice of listing a group of tasks in a block summary under a single time entry. For example: “Draft interrogatory requests; telephone conference with Dr. Brown re: expert report; summarize deposition of Mr. Smith; review and revise correspondence to opposing counsel. 7.3 hours.”

How do you know if your lawyer is selling you out?

Unprofessional or unethical behavior can include:Arriving late or failing to show up for important meetings, or missing court dates.Making decisions of importance about your case without discussing it with you first.Missing filing deadlines, filing paperwork incorrectly or filing the wrong paperwork with the court.More items...•

Can you sue a lawyer for not doing their job?

A claim of malpractice may exist if your lawyer exhibited negligence in your representation. If your lawyer's negligence caused you to suffer harm or a less advantageous outcome or settlement in your case, you may have a claim to sue your lawyer for professional negligence.

How do I fight excessive attorney fees in California?

If there is no local bar program, the State Bar may provide fee arbitration. To start the process, complete a fee arbitration request form from the local bar association and submit the filing fee. Include information about the attorney's fees and costs and explain why you believe the attorney's fees are excessive.

How lawyers bill their clients?

They can charge a set hourly rate for the time they spend working on your file, a flat fee for a specific service, or a contingency fee, which is based on a percentage of the outcome of the case. Most lawyers or paralegals will ask for some payment in advance, called a retainer.

Why do lawyers bill in 6 minute increments?

Why do lawyers bill in six-minute increments? Billing six minutes at a time is standard practice for practical reasons: Manually billing by the minute or in smaller increments is difficult and time-consuming to track and calculate by hand.

How do you calculate billable hours for a lawyer?

Calculating billable hours is straightforward: you take how much you've worked and multiply it by your hourly rate.

3 attorney answers

I suppose this would be theft, but I have never heard of anybody being prosecuted for it. It is certainly a grievable offense. You could file a complaint with the Florida Bar. But before you do that I'd suggest that you talk with a lawyer about the disputed charges.

Clifford M. Miller

Talk with the lawyer. What might appear to be "padding" might actually be legitimate and necessary to best represent your interests. Calmly and cooly inquire about the billing - don't start out accusing unless you have some evidence of wrong-doing at the outset.

Daniel Lee O'Neil

A lawyer is supposed to charge you for the work he does. If you have a dispute with him, you need to talk to him about it, and the Bar also has a fee dispute resolution center. You would have to speak with a prosecutor about any crimes.

What do lawyers do with third party bills?

These third-party professionals typically forward their bills to the lawyer for payment. Sometimes the lawyer pays such third party bills directly and then subsequently sends the client an invoice for the advanced costs. Other times, the lawyer forwards the third party bill directly to the client for payment. Whatever the process used, it is imperative that such third party bills state what was done with adequate detail to allow a client to decipher what was done and how much is being charged. If the lawyer advanced payment for such third party bills, representations and proof that these charges were actually paid should also be produced.

What documents can a lawyer use?

Even newly admitted lawyers have access to a library or cache of canned briefs and template documents they may utilize in their practice. These include, but are not limited to, canned or standardized pleadings, motions, discovery requests, and transactional documents like trusts and leases. These canned or standardized documents may have been created by the lawyer or some third source. The issue becomes whether it is appropriate for the lawyer to bill a client any premium for the creation of the original document, or may the lawyer only bill for the revisions made to the canned or standardized document.

What is a complaint about contract attorneys?

Another recurring complaint in fee disputes concerns charges for the use of contract attorneys. Lawyers use contract attorneys for a myriad of purposes, including court appearances, conducting legal research, drafting motions or appeals briefs, etc. The resulting complaints typically concern how much the client is ultimately charged for these tasks. The ABA has opined that, if properly disclosed, it is appropriate for the lawyer to mark-up the cost [or add a profit] for work performed by contract attorneys. (See American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility Formal Opinion 00-420, Surcharge to client for use of a contract attorney (November 29, 2000)). However, disputes result when a lawyer chooses to use a “contract attorney” and then bills for the work performed as a fee at the lawyer’s hourly rate, when, in fact, the lawyer is paying the contract attorney a lesser rate. 5

What should be included in an hourly fee for a lawyer?

lawyer’s hourly fee should include consideration for overhead items like rent, support staff wages, telephone service, internet fees, office supplies, library charges, seminars, continuing legal education charges, malpractice insurance and a whole host of expenses a lawyer will incur every day to keep his/her practice operating. Consideration for such expenses explains why lawyers in located in urban cities, like downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco, may generally charge higher hourly rates than their colleagues who rent much less expensive office space in the suburbs and outlying farming communities. Since overhead expenses are a cost of doing business, and should be reflected in the professionals’ hourly rates, they should not be passed on to the client unless the client has clearly agreed otherwise in the fee agreement. (See American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Formal Opinion 93-379, Billing for Professional Fees, Disbursements, and Other Expenses, (December 6, 1993).

What happens if an arbitrator encounters the exact same phrases used again and again in the fee bills?

If an arbitrator encounters the exact same phrases used again and again in the fee bills, it is likely that some routine has set in. This may allow some “ down time” to find its way into the fee bills . An entry such as “review documents produced by opposition, 7.5 hours” is typical.

What is block billing?

Block billing is the practice of assigning one time charge to multiple separate tasks. An extreme example would be a fee bill mailed to a client at the end of the case with a single entry for 200 hours for “work on case” without identifying, among other things, the various individual tasks performed, who performed them, and when. A more subtle example would be a 3.6 hour charge for “review client’s e-mail, retrieve file, call with DR re same, and prepare/send reply.” In the foregoing example, a client would be unable to determine how much time any one of the listed tasks actually took. More importantly, this type of block billing is prone to hide accountability and prevents a client from discerning which of the listed tasks are compensable and which are not. For instance, in the foregoing example, what if the lawyer [charging $300/hour] decided to personally make a 3-hour drive to and from an off-site storage facility to retrieve the file rather than sending his secretary [whom he pays $15/hour]? In such an instance, the itemized tasks actually took the lawyer 3.6 hours to complete, but in most instances, the 3 hours the lawyer spent retrieving the file may not be compensable. By utilizing block-billing, the client’s [and arbitrator’s] ability to assess the accuracy [and propriety] of the 3.6 hour charge is impeded.

What is staffing in legal matters?

The staffing of a legal matter by a lawyer presents the potential for bill padding that an arbitrator may consider. The main staffing issues that should be assessed include:

3 attorney answers

The first step is to attempt to resolve the issue with the lawyer directly. You may do that however you prefer: email, snail mail, a telephone call, or office consultation. I suggest, if you do it in writing, that you be specific about specific charges on the statement. Simply alleging "padding" is unlikely to produce the results you desire.

Michael Raymond Daymude

You should reach out to the former lawyer first to try and resolve the complaints. Point out the problems with the bill. If that does not work, contact the California State Bar. Try their website as well to get information on how to proceed with filing a formal complaint or resolving fee disputes.

What percentage of lawyers are block billed?

Approximately 90 percent of law firm clients who are billed on an hourly basis are “block billed.” Block billing is an accounting technique whereby lawyers aggregate multiple smaller tasks into a single "block" entry, for which a single time value is assigned. In theory, the total time charged equals the sum of the duration of each discrete task. For example, after spending five minutes on a phone call, 35 minutes revising a junior associate’s draft motion and three minutes dashing off a brief e-mail to the client, the attorney should bill the client for seven-tenths of an hour. Unfortunately, in far too many cases, the final block-billed entry for these tasks will end up looking something like this:

What is overbilling law?

Law firm overbilling - whether described as the euphemistic "bill padding" or simply "billing fraud" - is a serious problem that is seldom discussed and even less frequently addressed. But rare is the legal bill that does not include at least some "padding." In fact, according to the California State Bar, most bills are inflated at least 10-30 percent. This article describes three common ways legal bills are inflated and provides tips to help clients identify problematic billing practices.

How long does a lawyer have to submit a daily submission?

Now consider that, at least according to the California State Bar and nearly every state and federal court in the country, most lawyers' daily time submissions contain anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours of time billed to clients that was not actually worked.

Should senior partners bill partner rates for associate level tasks?

The problem arises when hourly rates are not discounted to reflect that the senior person is actually doing lower-level work. But senior partners should not bill partner rates for associate-level tasks and lawyers should never bill for paralegal work.

Do law firms charge for secretarial work?

But firms should never charge clients for secretarial work, clerical work or word processing.

Why are law firms billing by the hour?

Despite concerns that billing by the hour may incentivize lawyers to be inefficient, law firms remain “ wedded to the billable hour ” because of the difficulty in estimating how much time legal work will take. Some firms set prices using cost-based, competition-based, or value-based pricing. Law firms also consider the firm’s expertise in the subject, market rates in the jurisdiction, the type of matter, and the type of client when setting prices. In general, the pricing strategy for many law firms is not data-driven. This lack of optimization suggests that current market prices are likely inflated. The opaqueness of legal billing practices leads to clients dreading the results.

What is data driven billing?

Most data-driven billing software expands upon the Uniform Task-Based Management System (“UTBMS”) legal billing codes used to log billable hours. UTBMS codes were introduced by the American Bar Association in the mid-1990’s to standardize billing practices. While UTBMS codes “brought some clarity” to billing, the codes suffer “significant limitations” because of how broad they are. Legal billing data analytics software can use natural language processing, a form of artificial intelligence , to analyze the text descriptions accompanying time logs to determine exactly what a lawyer was doing and classify it more precisely than the default UTBMS codes can. The analytics software can then compare those classifications against historical data from the law firm and legal industry as a whole to flag potential bill padding. It will also help law firms efficiently price their services by providing them with historical billing data to use when determining pricing. This sort of data-driven pricing could become more important going forward if more law firms begin providing fixed-price quotes to clients instead of using billable hours to determine fees.

Why is it so difficult to detect a lawyer's cheating?

Detection is made more difficult because so many lawyers turn a blind eye toward their colleagues' dishonesty. Catholic University law professor Lisa Lerman talked to many lawyers uncomfortable with partners who cheated, "but they go along with it because they see it as professional suicide to do anything about it.".

Who surveyed lawyers in 1991?

In 1991, Cumberland (Ala.) law professor William Ross surveyed 280 lawyers in private practice and 80 who worked in-house for companies. The results were shocking. Seven out of eight practicing lawyers said that it was ethical to bill a client for "recycled" work originally done for another client. Half said they had billed two different clients for work performed during the same time period, such as dictating a memo for one client while traveling for another.

How long has a lawyer been on a day off?

The lawyer claimed to have never taken a day off in four years. But every lawyer must remain current on the law, go to firm meetings, and stay in touch with clients to keep and develop business It's impossible to convert every second into time that can be billed to a client.

Is Webster Hubbell a proof of abuse?

The Case of Webster Hubbell. It's sometimes easy to pick out the most extreme examples of bad behavior and claim they are "proof" of widespread abuse. But there are so many anecdotal accounts of incredible billing abuses by lawyers that it's hard to choose among them.

Is there a punishment for billing fraud?

Despite these extreme cases, lawyers -- with the notable exception of the high-visibility Hubbell, whose prosecution stemmed from the Whitewater investigation -- are rarely punished for billing abuses. Raleigh bankruptcy attorney Mark Kirby was indicted in federal court on 16 counts of billing fraud.