In-House Counsel

Bill auditors who pore over invoices for compliance and saving

By Rees Morrison

A gaggle of companies offer to review bills of law firms (See my post of Dec. 4, 2006: cottage industry of legal bill auditors; Dec. 16, 2007 #2: a law firm that reviews bills; Feb. 20, 2007: John Toothman; and April 16, 2007: Stuart Maue and huge amounts audited.).

Generally, I have disparaged bill audits by third parties (See my post of Dec. 3, 2006: instigates adversarial attitude; Oct. 24, 2007: criticism of the practice; May 4, 2005: bad blood between carriers and insurance defense firms; and Nov. 14, 2005: audits not being ?strategically sound?.).

Legal departments, however, continue to find value in outsiders poring over bills of law firms (See my post of Jan. 20, 2006: a fee audit?s findings; Jan. 10, 2006: a bill auditor of Bayer and challenges to fees; Oct. 1, 2005: early adopters may have benefited more than laggards; May 1, 2005: ROI from Proprietary Bill Review Services; Aug. 26, 2005: $3.3 million of bills reviewed per day; April 16, 2007: huge volume of bills audited by third-party bill reviewer; and Nov. 25, 2006 about OxyContin.).

Full post as published by Law Department Management on December 27, 2008 (boomark / email).