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The lawyer who under-charged...and other fairytales
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Author:  captain cab [ Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:28 pm ]
Post subject:  The lawyer who under-charged...and other fairytales
The lawyer who under-charged...and other fairytales
http://www.lithgowmercury.com.au/blogs/national-comment/the-lawyer-who-underchargedand-other-fairytales/1685139.aspx

Heard the one about the lawyer who charged like a perfectly reasonable, unmolested, even-tempered bull? Me neither.

There are plenty of them, but it is the horror stories and the bills so far-fetched that they read like cruel jokes that get repeated at barbecues and in organs such as this one.


The $50 or $100 accounts for opening Christmas cards, returning an umbrella, or photocopying, for example. There have been some crackers told in the past year.


Sydney man Mohammed Tariq has been plying his one-man stand-up comedy act on the steps of the city's courthouses, employing a sandwich board, a pony and a donkey as props and telling the ones about the welcome letter he received from Keddies Lawyers ($60, ker-ching) and the two-kilometre taxi ride his family was billed for (that'll be $600, thank you).


A costs assessor, barrister Michael Robinson, recommended Keddies refund Tariq $37,000 because of what he called deliberate "systematic duplication and overcharging".


Legal bills have become such a sought-after form of popular entertainment that the consumer group Choice went looking this year and found one poor sucker whose lawyer charged $750 for the typing of a three-page document.


The great irony, of course, is that the farcical bills that come to light are often the more honest ones, where a lawyer has been silly enough to list their actual activity on the ledger.


Consumers of legal services should be given a glossary, informing them that the all-too-common entries of "case management" or "strategy advice" can mean anything from "Opening Christmas card" to "flirting with paralegals", "choosing fancy dress costume online for Natasha's Halloween party", or "scratching self".


The root of the problem is the absurd six-minute billing system that persists in most legal firms. For the unitiated, here is how it works.


I just spent a good six minutes thinking about how to begin this article. If I were a lawyer, I would now be obliged to enter "Thinking about how to begin article" in a cell on a ledger — or something more presentable, such as "One-person strategy meeting".
Author:  cabby john [ Fri Nov 27, 2009 12:12 pm ]
Post subject: 
Back about 5 years ago I went to see a Sol about some business advice......................Anyway we had the take a seat and would you like some coffee routine followed by blah smile blah smile etc Mr Charm himself. Two hours and twenty minutes later, after listening to him as to how he was a business man and had built the practise up, he finally started to list as to how much things would cost me and this I took to mean if I engaged his services.

I listened intently as he outlined that he would charge for taking a call and charge for returning and making a call, opening a letter and replying to a letter etc etc etc. I left saying that I would get back to him. A few days later a letter arrived with a bill for £147+vat for the appointment that I had with him :shock:

I returned his bill with a long letter stating that his charges should have been pointed out to me before I arrived at his office and that I had no intention of paying them.............I heard no more :roll:
Author:  gusmac [ Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:37 pm ]
Post subject: 
cabby john wrote:

I returned his bill with a long letter stating that his charges should have been pointed out to me before I arrived at his office and that I had no intention of paying them.............I heard no more :roll:


You should have billed him for returning his correspondance... :lol:
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