Defense costs can be the second largest expenditure of a business (the largest typically being settlement funds). We are keenly aware of the need to control costs, and we have adopted certain billing practices and case management techniques to meet this goal.

Our Billing Practices:

What We Will Not Do:

• Block bill unless requested. Each service function will show the amount of time to perform the task and will not be grouped with other functions.
• Round time to nearest hour or half hour. Only actual time is listed.
• Bill for unexplained service entries such as “conference,” “telephone call,” “review,” “research,” etc. (the calls, research and conferences will be explained).
• Bill for duplicate effort. The only exception would be in the case of complex litigation involving several participants or causes of action.
• Engage in excessive review time. This includes repeated review of documents by one attorney, duplication of effort by more than one attorney, and premature reviews for trial.
• Bill for fixed overhead expenses
• Abuse billing for intra-office conferencing and memorandums. Often, these functions are merely administrative, supervisory, instructional or educational in nature. In those circumstances, these conferences will not be placed upon your bill. At times, “two heads are better than one,” but this will be the exception, not the rule. Indeed, if we bill at all, you usually only pay for one attorneys time.

What We Will Do:

• Obtain prior authority:
  • To retain experts
  • To travel out of state
  • For any activity resulting in a major expense
• Invite any auditing of our bills and services
• Dispense with unnecessary written discovery
• Retain only necessary experts, and control their activities and, thus, their fees
• In Construction Defect cases, strictly limit attendance at site inspections by attorneys and paralegals (experts are retained for this very purpose)