LEGAL FEE INVOICES AND EXPERT WITNESSES
Michael Sean Quinn*

            Court opinions from many states all stand for the proposition that only an attorney can testify as to the reasonableness and hence the legal acceptability of a legal bill. Typical is Woodhaven, Ltd. v. Shamoun [and] Norman, LLP, 422 S.W.3d 821 (Tex. App.–Dallas, 2014) no writ.

This is important law because it is not unheard of for law firms to sue their clients for the non-payment of fees.  Consequently, most clients –all who are not themselves lawyers–cannot testify in court that the fees charged charged them or that the bills presented to them were unreasonable. This is the “black letter” law of the land. No questions about it.

What sorts of things may be involved here?

·       *Did L charge more or less what other types of lawyers at that “rank” charge for that sort of work in a given region?
·       *Was there any padding in the bills?
·       *Were too many lawyers involved in this or that project?
·       *Was the work in accordance with the specified scope of the work?
·       *Was the work for which a charge is being made done reasonably well under the circumstances?
·       And so forth.

If one stops to think about it, sense cannot be made out of the restriction included in the prevailing law.

First and most obviously, someone who was an attorney but isn’t any more, might well be an expert on the topic. 

Second, and almost as obvious, if someone isn’t yet an attorney but have been working on auditing legal bills and overseeing lawyers (e.g., some types of insurance adjusters or accountants).

Third, someone who has been trained as a lawyer and never became one, but had been handling supervising lawyer for a long time, should be able to testify.

Fourth, a risk manager who has been dealing with lawyer for years on end may well be just as good at judging bills and some areas of performance as any lawyers. (Some insurance adjusters and some underwriters are like this.)

Fifth, a person in business who has been involved and transactions and litigation for a good part of his/her adult life might be qualified to be an expert.

Sixth, a business person who has been dealing with the same firm for a long time might be an expert.  This could happen if the quality of the firm’s performances declined noticeable over time, and the client representative was sometimes reasonably careful in watching what was going on.

Of course, there may be other sorts of cases, and the particulars of this or that case might or might not fit with the general categories I just quickly sketched out, or might be able to off in the future.




Michael Sean Quinn, Ph.D., J.D., C.P.C.U. . . .
The Law Firm of Michael Sean Quinn et
Quinn and Quinn
                                                  1300 West Lynn Street, Suite 208
                                                              Austin, Texas 78703
                                                                  (512) 296-2594
                                                             (512) 344-9466 – Fax
                                                  E-mail:  mquinn@msquinnlaw.com