 Welcome:
Who We Are:
What We Do:
Articles & Publications:
Presentations:Last update: 04/29/08 Our 15th Year
|
Our Legal Bill Review Process
Devil's Advocate reviews legal bills to determine whether the time billed is necessary and reasonable, applying whatever standard the relevant law would apply. To conduct the review, we generally need copies of the bills, any supporting documentation from the law firm, any billing agreement between client and firm, correspondence between client and firm about the bills or management of the case, and the work product that corresponds with the bill entries. If the bills are available on computer disk, that may save time in reviewing bills and allow us to conduct additional testing of the bills. Paper bills may also be scanned into computer-readable form
Work product that we examine may include not only the briefs or memoranda prepared by the firm presenting the bill, but also work product from their opponents or the court that caused the firm to expend time. For example, if the bill shows time spent in reviewing an opponent's motion, it would be useful for us to see the opponent's motion as well as the firm's response.
To make our review as cost-effective as possible, we generally make a preliminary examination of the bill and readily available information to determine whether problems worth pursuing further might exist. Often this initial review provides enough information to establish a reasonable fee, thereby making further review by Devil's Advocate unnecessary. When necessary and feasible, however, Devil's Advocate can take the bill review further, in a fashion comparable to financial audits of accounting records, by going on-site to the law firm, checking underlying data, verifying expense and time entries, interviewing persons with relevant information, and examining other available, relevant information. We can also seek outside benchmarks to establish reasonableness, for example, with a survey of hourly rates in a given jurisdiction.
Assuming that our client already has the basic information we need to review on hand, our examination can be conducted confidentially, with or without the law firm's knowledge and cooperation. If the lawyers cooperate, we can discuss preliminary findings with them and analyze their explanations. If the lawyers do not wish to cooperate, the client may at least wish to notify them, in writing, that they are expected to preserve all billing and work product files.
We generally provide an oral or written report on our preliminary findings, in a format acceptable to our client. What the client (or its legal counsel) does with that information is then up to the client. If needed, we can participate in an informal or formal presentation of our results, e.g., by affidavit, in a settlement conference, or by testifying at trial.
Our fees for reviewing a bill can be billed by the hour or as a fixed fee--our billing policy contains details of these alternatives. For most bills, our fees for examining the bills and preparing our report are usually less than 5% of the original amount of the bill -- the size and format of the bills, along with other factors, determine our fee. Our participation in further proceedings, e.g., by being deposed, assisting with trial preparation, and testifying, is usually billed by the hour, unless other arrangements can be made.
Remember that, although the Devil's Advocate can analyze even the stalest bill, our philosophy is that it is more cost-effective to monitor not just fees, as well as staffing, strategy, and tactics, from the very beginning. The Devil's Advocate can assist in attorney selection and negotiation of a fee agreement, before counsel logs the first billable hour. We can then monitor the case as it progresses, watching for early warning signs of trouble or unnecessary expense, going far beyond what one can accomplish merely by challenging a cold bill.
01/02/99