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Overbilling lawyers are more common that consumers of legal services may think. In 1991, law professor William Ross surveyed 280 lawyers in private practice and 80 who worked in-house for companies. He found that 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 writing a memo for one client while traveling for another. The same study found that 55% of attorneys said that lawyers occasionally or frequently overbilled; 64% said they were personally aware of lawyer overbilling. The in-house lawyers surveyed were even more clear: over 80% felt that the billable hour influenced how much time the outside lawyers they hired spent on a case, and 74% felt that the billable hour significantly decreased lawyers’ incentives to work efficiently.

William G. Ross, a Samford University law professor who has conducted studies of lawyer overbilling, has explained that lawyer overbilling is “much more common than most lawyers are willing to admit.” He also says “a substantial proportion of attorneys engage in billing practices that most lay persons probably would regard as unethical.”

So, the problem of lawyer overbilling is obviously a large one. The question becomes, as a client, how to determine whether your lawyer is overbilling you. Sadly, there is no fool-proof way to know whether your attorney is engaging in lawyer overbilling. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to (1) negotiate a good retention letter; (2) get good billing guidelines in place, and (3) review your legal bill every month.

Many people do not know that a client-friendly retention letter can easily be negotiated with your attorney. With some simple direction, you can negotiate a strong retention letter that protects your rights to review legal bills and protect against lawyer overbilling.

The importance of good billing guidelines cannot be overstated. Billing guidelines will explicitly lay out exactly what you will and will not pay for, and will provide you leverage when you review your legal bill at the end of every month.

Finally, legal bill review is also a very important way to protect yourself or your business. You can have a pro review your legal bill, or if you do not have the resources, you can learn to do it yourself and learn ways to spot lawyer overbilling.