Trusted By The World’s
Leading Corporations

Photo of the legal professionals at Klein & Wilson
  1. Home
  2.  » 
  3. Legal Malpractice
  4.  » Overbilling

Skilled And Careful Analysis Of Legal Bills

Regrettably, overbilling is more common than most clients recognize. For a client inexperienced in reviewing legal bills, overbilling may not be immediately apparent. Evaluating whether a bill is inflated requires broad experience in a wide array of subject matters. A bill may be inflated due to bill padding, where the time a task took is exaggerated. Overbilling may also result from task padding, where a lawyer bills for unnecessary tasks. Both issues are often difficult for clients to uncover on their own.

Klein & Wilson‘s professional staff is highly skilled at evaluating billing entries and determining whether overbilling has occurred. Klein & Wilson‘s attorneys are experts in uncovering billing fraud. Finding incidents of bill, or task padding is the necessary first step in holding a lawyer accountable for inflated fees.

In 2009, the 600-member Orange County Trial Lawyers Association elected Gerald A. Klein as Trial Lawyer of the Year for trying professional negligence cases.

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.
  • Performing unnecessary work: When attorneys perform tasks that are not necessary to the success of the case, the client’s bill unnecessarily increases.
  • Overstaffing: It is rarely justified for two, or more, lawyers to bill for the same task, but some law firms to send multiple attorneys to handle mundane hearings. This can result in massive overbilling.
  • Inefficient services: Sometimes, lawyers simply spend too much time on a task. Rather than billing the client for the reasonable amount of time associated with the project, some lawyers take the position that “I spent the time; therefore, I will bill all of it.” Lawyer’s bills should be reasonable.

It is important to discuss your situation with an experienced attorney who can build a strong, effective legal malpractice case.

Contact Klein & Wilson

To reach our experienced attorneys about legal malpractice matters call 949-239-0907, or contact the firm by email.