Opinion ID: 1297972
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Improper billing

Text: There are several allegations involving improper billing. Beginning in 1989, respondent began to send some of her work to an attorney, Tom Bruce. Bruce, a full-time employee of Legal Services in Greenville, did this work in his spare time to supplement his income. Respondent increased the number of hours or most often simply doubled the time spent by Bruce and billed these hours to her clients. For example, Bruce would work on a brief for two hours and respondent would bill a client for four hours. Bruce submitted written bills with his work. Respondent wrote notes to her bookkeeper on these bills regarding how to bill for the time: enter for 3 hours for me as my work (Ex. C-(f)); Pay Tom and bill under my namedouble time to allow for me (Ex. C-(h) and (r)); Double his time as for me pay him his actual time (Ex. C-(z)); Enter for me doubled time (Ex. C-(k)); double to me (Ex. C-(aa)); post as if my time and double time to cover time I spent w/Tom (Ex. C-(cc)); double for me (Ex. C-(gg)); double this for KPJ (ex. C-(jj)); and double to include me (Ex. C-(mm)). In the record, there are 39 cases which reflect this billing practice. Respondent testified she typically doubled the time which Bruce spent on a file to include her time for supervising and directing Bruce and finalizing the work. She also testified she frequently called Bruce from her home and, since she did not keep track of this time, she simply doubled his time as a rule of thumb. There are two examples in the record when respondent doubled his hours from 7 to 14 hours and from 4 to 8 hours. Bruce testified respondent sometimes called him at home but the calls rarely lasted longer than 15 minutes. We find respondent's repeated practice of increasing or doubling Bruce's hours when billing without justification amounts to misconduct. Like the Panel, we are convinced respondent did not spend even close to the amount of time she billed on these cases. [2] Further, guessing or using a fixed rule to double time is not a proper way to keep track of hours which are billed to clients.