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Cordell And Cordell Overbills Client – Refuses To Pay Award – Admonished By Court Of Appeals

Cordell And Cordell Overbills Client – Refuses To Pay Award – Admonished By Court Of Appeals

This is why our flat fee model is best.

I worked at this firm for 6 months and quit when I realized rampant overbilling was happening. This can often be the case in hourly billing. The Court of Appeals agreed that Cordell and Cordell breached its contract with a former client and breached its fiduciary duty to him when it billed for work in a manner that placed the firm’s financial interests above the client’s interests.

This line in particular struck me: “ The firm worked on Gao’s case for five and a half months and charged Gao nearly $50,000 for that work .

Unless you are Bill Gates, no divorce should cost that much.

“That evidence also included the testimony of Gao’s former lawyer that the firm had instructed him to “ think more creatively” about his cases to meet billable hour requirements , a practice that bothered the lawyer and that he thought did a disservice to the client. And that evidence included the arbitration award in which the arbitrators found that the firm had billed Gao in a manner that served the firm’s interests over those of Gao.”

Read the full opinion here:
http://opinions.dailyreportonline.com/singleOpin.asp?l=100294703575&searchKeywords=