Could Your Lawyer Have Cheated You on Your Bill?
Today’s story looks at billing practices that may violate ethical rules that apply to lawyers across the country. Before reading further, if you have hired an attorney recently or in the past few years and still have the paperwork, pull out the retainer agreement and accounting sheet. Look for this type of language under costs:
“$50 scanning/storage of file fee; $75 file/cost maintenance fee; $75 long-distance telephone toll calls/faxes; $75 initial data entry.”
If you have been charged for these things, especially for long-distance telephone calls, depending upon the state you live in, you may very well have been overcharged.
In the 1980s a phone call from California to New York cost over 30 cents However, for the past several years, long-distance telephone toll charges have almost completely vanished.
