[blindlaw] Billable hours and reasonable accommodation

Ross Doerr rumpole at roadrunner.com
Thu Jul 19 21:25:58 UTC 2012 

Hello Josh:
I hear you loud and clear. The quality of health care is sufferring up here
because the darn medical profession is moving out. I spoke with several
doctors and medical people who said, in very plain language, that they can't
make ends meet here, and part of the reason is that health insurance
companies and Medicaid reimbursement rates are so bad, they're just going to
leave.
My own personal family doctor complains that he can't get anyone new to join
up with him because of just that reason, new doctors are every bit as laden
with student loans as new lawyers are, and the pay is so bad that they can't
afford to live up here.
So, yes, I hear you, on the medical as well as legal fronts.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of joshjsmith at charter.net
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 12:03 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List
Cc: 'Blind Law Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Billable hours and reasonable accommodation

Ross we have a similar situation in North Georgia.  Many medical
professionals are simply packing up and leaving because the cost of doing
business is so high given that several insurers will not cover this area and
because the carpet industry, which built this part of the state, is
virtually gone and no one has a job. I am lucky in that at least for now I
have two contracts with the circuit to provide indigent services to families
in juvenile court.  I think at some point the counties in this circuit will
begin to trim their budget and the only thing that may save my contracts is
the fact that I have been doing this longer than the other attorneys who
have the other contracts the contracts.  My judge wants to hang on to my
services.
I do have one client who has been billed well for a case that just completed
litigation after four years.  I know I did twice as much work on the case as
a billed for but this is a loyal client who came to me from a friend who
became ill and closed his practice.  The client knows it takes me longer to
sift through discovery and he knows I don't bill him for all that time.  I
did however include all my time in my motion for attorneys fees against the
other side.


On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 2:02 PM, Ross Doerr wrote:

> Hi Josh:
> I couldn't agree more.  When I made the determination of what the case 
> is worth, I always did it from the viewpoint of the client, and billed 
> fairly, or what I thought was fair, from that point on. That almost 
> always involved a decrease in the bill, and the client did not miss 
> seeing that.
> You can't buy that kind of good will for a practice. Like you, it 
> almost always took me longer to go through things than a sighted 
> attorney would take owing to blindness, but whether you are 
> well-versed in that particular field of law, or are just getting 
> started in it, ethics opinions come down on the side of spending what 
> ever time is necessary to properly represent ;your client. Hence my 
> fallback of billing according to what the case is worth in my area, 
> and what the client's real world means are. A $500 case here would 
> almost certainly be billed out much higher in a place like Boston, 
> Phoenix Los Angeles or San Francisco.
> Maine
> rates #50  in recovery from this economic depression, and our 
> population is decreasing as those with good educations flee to areas 
> where jobs are more plentiful and pay rates are higher. What that 
> really means is that the pool of business clients or private clients 
> is getting smaller while the number of attorneys remains the same. The 
> level of employment is just so low that pay and billing must react to 
> stay open.  For example, I've been amazed at how many members of the 
> medical profession are closing up their practices here and going down 
> to Texas. The availability of medical care is sufferring for it.
> I'm sure Texas is a wonderful place, but having seen the heat 
> temperatures down there lately, I think I'll stick to the ice and snow 
> up here for a while yet.
>   Ross
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On
> Behalf Of joshjsmith at charter.net
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 1:18 PM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List
> Cc: Blind Law Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Billable hours and reasonable accommodation
>
> I do tend to write down my bills.  Probably because I don't want to 
> over bill for the area but also because I realize it does take me 
> longer to read through thick files and I don't want to pass that cost 
> on to my clients.  I will say that many clients to understand that it 
> takes me longer and I have even had some tell me to bill for whatever 
> time I spend on their case.
> I
> still write some time off however.
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Gerard Sadlier wrote:
>
>> as a trainee we are told to account for all the time we work.
>> Most of that will be written off, not just for me but for everyonE.
>> This is a good question.
>> Do you find yourselves working longer hours as blind lawyers?
>> Ger
>>
>> On 7/15/12, Farber, Randy <rfarber at jw.com> wrote:
>>> Elizabeth -
>>>
>>> 	When  it comes to billables, there are two places that the 
>>> statistics are important.  First, they show-up on the invoice to 
>>> your client.  I always review the invoices and bill based on what I 
>>> believe is competitive.
>>> Therefore, I often write off some of the time I bill.  Not because I 
>>> am blind, but because I do not believe that the invoice is 
>>> competitive in the market.
>>>
>>> 		The second place where billables are important is in your 
>>> compensation as an associate (as opposed to a partner where it is 
>>> the cash that is important).  My recommendation is to write down all 
>>> the hours you work, and let the billing attorney decide what should 
>>> be billed.  If you are solo or in a small firm, you may be both the 
>>> working attorney and the billing attorney.  In which case, I still 
>>> have the same advise.  You will want to be able to keep track of how 
>>> many hours you are spending on a task, even if you are not billing 
>>> the entire time.
>>>
>>> Feel free to contact me off list if you would like to discuss this 
>>> issue in a lawfirm setting.
>>>
>>> Randy
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org
>>> [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Rene
>>> Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2012 5:29 PM
>>> To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: [blindlaw] Billable hours and reasonable accommodation
>>>
>>> I am very impressed to read that several lawyers on this list are 
>>> working for private firms.  I have always worked in the public 
>>> sector.  Could you please tell me your experience of logging 
>>> billable hours for your firms?
>>> While consistently productive, I have always taken a bit longer to 
>>> do research and write briefs than my sighted colleagues (time and a 
>>> half, at least(, but maybe some new technology would improve that.
>>> How have your firms rated the productivity of blind lawyers, and 
>>> how--generally--are blind lawyers in the private sector calculating 
>>> their billable hours if they take longer than sighted colleagues to 
>>> do specific tasks?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Elizabeth Rene
>>>
>>>
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>>
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