How can you challenge vague billable hours submitted by retained expert?

[Surfshack]

Our lawyer retained an out of state medical expert who submitted a significant invoice relative to other experts on the case. The lawyer got him to reduce his fee by 10%, but it is still very high due to an extraordinary number of hours simply listed as "review of literature", referring to published medical research studies. Our attorney told us that that was too vague and he would challenge the expert to get the fee further reduced. The expert went down about another $800-900, but refused to budge further. We have since learned that the expert listed 26 hrs of reviewing research literature to prep for our case, and that he is now charging future clients much less than he charged us since he doesn't have to "review literature" for them. The attorney suggested that he charge each future client a little more to amortize and spread out the cost and not hit us with all of it, but he declined. In essence, we are subsidizing his future clients and paying the expert for his on-the-job learning, when he was retained because he was supposed to already have the expertise. We found out our attorney went ahead and paid him because he said there was nothing more he could do. Do we have any recourse with the expert or the attorney? How do you challenge vague billable hours of an expert because they can apparently put anything down and you have no way to prove otherwise?

 

[adjusterjack]

Is this "expert" licensed by any state regulatory agency?

 

[zddoodah]

So...the expert billed you/your attorney:

$X
<10% x $X>
<$800-900>
$???

What's the bottom line?

What kind of case was it?

How does the bottom line compare to the estimate of the expert's fees at the time he was retained?

Is the case over? If so, and assuming you were the plaintiff, how much did you recover?

Who signed the contract with the expert? You or your attorney?

What state?

 

[quincy]

Our lawyer retained a medical expert who submitted a significant invoice relative to other experts on the case. The lawyer got him to reduce his fee by 10%, but it is still very high due to an extraordinary number of hours simply listed as "review of literature", referring to published medical research studies. Our attorney told us that that was too vague and he would challenge the expert to get the fee further reduced. The expert went down about another $800-900, but refused to budge further. We have since learned that the expert listed 26 hrs of reviewing research literature to prep for our case, and that he is now charging future clients much less than he charged us since he doesn't have to "review literature" for them. The attorney suggested that he charge each future client a little more to amortize and spread out the cost and not hit us with all of it, but he declined. In essence, we are subsidizing his future clients and paying the expert for his on-the-job learning, when he was retained because he was supposed to already have the expertise. We found out our attorney went ahead and paid him because he said there was nothing more he could do. Do we have any recourse with the expert or the attorney? How do you challenge vague billable hours of an expert because they can apparently put anything down and you have no way to prove otherwise?

If your attorney paid the (overpriced) medical expert what the expert demanded, you could always challenge your own attorney’s bill to you, using your own lawyer’s words that the medical expert’s fees were high. These inflated fees should not be passed on to you.

 

[Surfshack]

Is this "expert" licensed by any state regulatory agency?

No, it appears the state he is in does not regulate experts.

 

[Surfshack]

If your attorney paid the (overpriced) medical expert what the expert demanded, you could always challenge your own attorney’s bill to you, using your own lawyer’s words that the medical expert’s fees were high. These inflated fees should not be passed on to you.

We did that, but the attorney is saying without proof, there is nothing more he can do. He has no way to dispute his hours. He said ethically, he had to pay the invoice, which means we have to pay.

 

[Just Blue]

No, it appears the state he is in does not regulate experts.

What state?

 

[Surfshack]

So...the expert billed you/your attorney:

$X
<10% x $X>
<$800-900>
$???

What's the bottom line?

What kind of case was it?

How does the bottom line compare to the estimate of the expert's fees at the time he was retained?

Is the case over? If so, and assuming you were the plaintiff, how much did you recover?

Who signed the contract with the expert? You or your attorney?

What state?

Attorney advanced the fees. The PI case settled, but we paid more in costs than we netted, though their draft final distribution does not reflect that. We had out of pocket costs we paid to visit this expert and another, but the attorney is not taking those into account, though we have to in order to determine our true net recovery.

There was no estimate of the expert's fees provided to us. The fee sheet outlined the retainer and hourly rate. We didn't see any of that until well after he was hired. We were told they don't know when they hire an expert what their final fee will be

Attorney signed contract with expert.
CT

 

[adjusterjack]

We did that, but the attorney is saying without proof, there is nothing more he can do. He has no way to dispute his hours. He said ethically, he had to pay the invoice, which means we have to pay.

You can file an attorney fee dispute with the state Bar or whatever state agency does attorney fee disputes.

 

[zddoodah]

No, it appears the state he is in does not regulate experts.

No state regulates "experts," but most experts are members of particular professions. If this "medical expert" is a doctor, then some regulation may exist (although I don't know any state that regulates doctors other than in relation to the provision of medical services).

As for the rest, it seems like your beef is with your lawyer. However, I'll say this: if a lawyer has to learn a particular body of law or procedure for a particular case and has to spend time learning how to do that, his/her client is going to pay for that time and, if the lawyer handles another case that requires that same knowledge, then client #2 will get the benefit of the attorney already having that knowledge. There's nothing wrong with that, and I've never been involved with an expert witness who didn't have to review certain published material in preparing his/her opinions.

 

[quincy]

We did that, but the attorney is saying without proof, there is nothing more he can do. He has no way to dispute his hours. He said ethically, he had to pay the invoice, which means we have to pay.

I agree with adjusterjack that your recourse is to file a fee dispute with your state’s attorney regulatory agency. We can provide you with contact information if you provide us with the name of your state.

I question your attorney’s choice of expert witness, seeing as how he was apparently less than expert.

 

[Surfshack]

No state regulates "experts," but most experts are members of particular professions. If this "medical expert" is a doctor, then some regulation may exist (although I don't know any state that regulates doctors other than in relation to the provision of medical services).

As for the rest, it seems like your beef is with your lawyer. However, I'll say this: if a lawyer has to learn a particular body of law or procedure for a particular case and has to spend time learning how to do that, his/her client is going to pay for that time and, if the lawyer handles another case that requires that same knowledge, then client #2 will get the benefit of the attorney already having that knowledge. There's nothing wrong with that, and I've never been involved with an expert witness who didn't have to review certain published material in preparing his/her opinions.

I can see your viewpoint, but there's something about this that leaves a bitter taste. This expert presented himself as knowledgeable about the area in which we needed expertise, so why did he bill out almost 30 hours for reviewing literature? Just seems like an excessive amount. He was supposed to know this stuff!

 

[quincy]

I can see your viewpoint, but there's something about this that leaves a bitter taste. This expert presented himself as knowledgeable about the area in which we needed expertise, so why did he bill out almost 30 hours for reviewing literature? Just seems like an excessive amount. He was supposed to know this stuff!

Some additional research will always be necessary because no two cases are alike. You want an expert to be able to speak to the specifics of your own case.

That said, if you feel feel the witness fee was excessive (and your own attorney seemed to question the amount as well), you could check out Connecticut’s lawyer-client fee dispute resolution program. Here is a link:
https://www.ctbar.org/public/lawyer-client-fee-dispute-resolution-program

Good luck.

 

[zddoodah]

I can see your viewpoint, but there's something about this that leaves a bitter taste. This expert presented himself as knowledgeable about the area in which we needed expertise, so why did he bill out almost 30 hours for reviewing literature? Just seems like an excessive amount. He was supposed to know this stuff!

Lawyers know their stuff, but that doesn't mean they know every published case, so they often bill lots of time for legal research. An expert's opinion has value if it is supported by published literature. I don't know if the number in your case is or isn't excessive, but it's perfectly reasonable for an expert to read published literature and bill for the time doing so.

 

[quincy]

It is too bad that your case has already settled. It is prior to settlement that your negotiating power is greatest. An attorney wants to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion so at that time the attorney may be more willing to take a reduction in his own costs just to make it happen.

In what state does the medical expert live? What is his area of medical expertise?