Opinion ID: 1788578
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: The Counties' Law Office Management Consultant

Text: The counties presented the testimony of Mr. Richard Reed who is a consultant on the subject of law office management. Mr. Reed has written extensively for the American Bar Association on the subject of law office economics and billable hours. Without question Mr. Reed is an expert on billing and the generation of income from a private law firm. If all of Mr. Reed's suggestions were followed they would possibly create a state of the art appellate division, but when questioned by your Commissioner he stated that none of these proposed changes could be put into effect Monday in order to relieve the present crisis. Significantly, most of Mr. Reed's suggestions would cost the counties or the state more money; which is of course the problem in the first place. However, under no circumstances would implementation of Mr. Reed's suggestions remedy the current caseload problem in the Second District Court of Appeal. Even if all of his suggestions were implemented production would only be minimally increased. If all of his suggestions were implemented the backlog of 382 cases which are the subject of current motions would be hardly dented. The weight of Mr. Reed's testimony was substantially diminished by his lack of expertise in the particular area in question.