Labor & Employment Law

Why Having a Big Firm May Not Be The Cure

By Dobin & Jenks

I will admit, I have a small firm. in fact, you can't get much smaller than a law firm of one lawyer. I like to think that I am conscious of the costs of running a business and hiring a lawyer. If a document can be scanned an emailed, that's the way I send it. Unless someone requires me to do so, I will not fax something and then send it by overnight delivery service.

Today I received a discovery request from a large firm in Chicago. It was something that they previously had faxed to me. So they didn't violate my "no fax and overnight" rule. But the envelope, which was oversized, seemed heavy to me. My assistant weighed the empty envelope. It weighed an ounce.

Under the new postage rules, the envolope itself costs 83 cents. Now 83 cents is not a lot of money. But it shows how insensitive lawyers can be to expenses. If they charged this postage expense back to the client, then the client paid 83 cents before the envelope was filled. What bothers me is that noone at this law firm thought to themselves that these heavy envelopes end up costing someone more money than necessary.

I'm not suggesting wrapping stuff in cellophane and sending it. But I am suggesting that lawyers need to be more sensitive to the expenses they incur on behalf of their clients.

That's the view from The Law Planet, Jupiter, Florida.

Full post as published by The Law Planet Blog on September 02, 2008 (boomark / email).