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The Ethics of Double Billing

By William G. Ross

[Editor's note: In this new article for A&FP, Professor Ross takes a fresh look at one of several vexing billing problems he explored in his 1996 book, "The Honest Hour: The Ethics of Time-Based Billing By Attorneys." For his columns on a variety of Constitutional law topics, including a timely, detailed critique of Justice Scalia's controversial recusal refusal, see http://jurist.law.pitt.edu.]

Few practices have subjected lawyers to more public derision than so-called “double billing,” by which attorneys bill two or more clients for different work performed at the same time. Double billing commonly occurs when an attorney riding on an airplane bills one client for his travel time and another client for drafting a motion during the flight. Another common type of double billing occurs when an attorney who represents multiple clients in the same lawsuit bills each client fully for overlapping time (eg, time spent in court) rather than apportioning the time among the clients. A third type occurs when an attorney performs work on several files for a client being sued by multiple parties, and the attorney bills each file fully for overlapping time rather than apportioning the time among the files. Such duplication of time has enabled attorneys to bill herculean numbers of hours, sometimes more than twenty-four in a day.

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