Public Health Law Map - Beta 5 - Medical and Public Health Law Site

Lawyers working on a contingency do not charge the client an hourly rate, but they do
pass on the expenses of the case. Attorneys working for an hourly rate pass all
expenses through to the client, in addition to the charges for their time. These expenses
range from a few dollars for photocopying and messenger charges to expert witness
fees in the thousands of dollars. The client sometimes pays the bills directly, although
in most cases, the law firm includes the expenses with the professional services bill.
The client pays the aggregate charges, and the law firm pays the outside vendors.
Expenses in a simple collection matter may be $100. Expenses in the defense of a
medical malpractice case may be $30,000 or more. Expenses in a complex antitrust
case can run to millions of dollars, plus tens of millions in attorney’s fees.
1. Legal Bills
a) Chronological Billing
Most attorneys bill chronologically rather than aggregating the charges for a given
task. As attorneys work, they fill out time slips that document the client, the task,
the attorney, and the time spent on the task since the last time slip was completed.
Assume that the attorney is reviewing your file:
Looking at the correspondence (review correspondence—.25 hr.).
Making three telephone calls in response to the correspondence (phone call,
Sara Smith—.25 hr.; phone call, Jack Jones—.25 hr.; phone call—Dr.
Alexander—.25 hr.).
Looking over the pleadings (review pleading—.25 hr.).
Dictating a motion (prepare motion—.25 hr.).
Reading an article on the use of thermography to see if it would help in your
case (research—.5 hr.).
Spending a few minutes rearranging the papers (reorganize file—.25 hr.).
This single work session generates eight billing entries, most of which are for the
law firm’s minimum billing increment, a quarter-hour. None of these entries is of
value in determining the status of the case.
Legal bills also fail to give the client proper information on the cost of the discrete
elements of the case. The information is in the bills, but it is just not aggregated in
time. Assume that you want to know the cost of a deposition. The monthly charges
for a deposition might resemble the following:
b) May
Telephone conference with an expert: 1 May—.5 hr.
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