Legal Bills Auditing

But we get inquiries from attorneys asking us where they can find someone to audit attorney fee bills (either to initially determine relationship between the time billed and the value to the client of the work, or to support a fees opinion expert who needs back skilled clerical help, properly directed, to assemble facts and figures for him/her in a way the expert can use for his/her analysis.  Accountability Services, Inc., a legal bills auditing specialist, is an auditing firm specializing in legal bills and costs.

We have no financial interest in Accountability Services., Inc., but we do recommend them in regard to auditing to determine reasonableness of legal fees. Why? Because there is a lot of work underneath a proper expert opinion, and Accountability Services has the proprietary software and the lawyers with expertise to properly audit legal bills and time records. 

Most people recognize that on legal costs and disbursements, until the detail work of looking at each item is done you cannot identify whether there is a hidden premium or allocation of overhead charged for disbursements.  What most people do not recognize is that giving an opinion on reasonableness of attorney fees involves involves a lot of preparatory work before final analysis can be done. You cannot simply only run a computer program that says X amount of dollars is the proper legal charge for a deposition and Y amount of dollars is the proper charge for a telephone call. A proper audit involves first, reconstructing generally how the case was handled; and then categorizing and breaking down the time records to find out what was done, by whom and for how long. The time records must be in a format so that they can be placed into a computer and totals and comparisons run. Only when detailed preparatory work has been done, can an auditor or legal fees expert look for efficiencies and inefficiencies in how the work was done.  For example, until you have allocated to the taking of a deposition all of the time billed for preparation, attendance, and follow up on the deposition can you determine whether: Was there an excessive number of timekeepers working on the matter? Did timekeepers duplicate the efforts of others? Was there attorney rotation on  that inflated the legal fees? Did the person with the proper billing rate perform the work? Was too much time spent in internal meetings?

To repeat, Accountability Services has the proprietary software and the lawyers with expertise to properly audit legal bills and time records.  That's why we recommend them.

Founded in 1991, Accountability Services has grown into serving businesses of all sizes, including Fortune 500 Companies, international organizations and governmental institutions. The principal of Accountability Services is Judith A. Bronsther, Esq., who has written extensively on the subject of legal cost control and lectures on the subject. For more information contact Accountability Services, Inc., 853 Broadway, Suite 1607 New York, NY 10107.  We suggest a telephone call to Judith A. Bronsther, Esq. at 212.245.0245.