Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Is is usual for lawyers to charge clients for fixing their own drafting errors?
I recently was involved in a now settled law suit. My lawyers made a drafting error in the settle ment agreement in the ''Releases'' section. Basically they did a sloppy cut and paste job, didn't read what they pasted to see if it made sense, and the result was that I had to perform my part of the bargain and my opponent didn't have to do anything to be released. I (the client) caught the error, just before we were to sign the agreement, told my lawyer, who agreed it was a good catch, and he had to have it fixed. I wondered at the time if they were going to try to bill me for their sloppy drafting and for the time that it took to fix the error. And as it turns out, they have billed me for it. So my question: Is it usual for a client to have to foot the bill to repair an error made by the lawyers? I would have thought they would have been too embarrassed to charge me, but that's clearly not the case.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Is is usual for lawyers to charge clients for fixing their own drafting errors?
This is very strange. Unless the error in drafting the document was partially the client's fault, there is no reason why a lawyer should charge for something like that. I wonder how they can possibly rationalize charging for their own error.
Arkady Itkin
http://www.sanfranciscoemploymentlawfirm.com
Re: Is is usual for lawyers to charge clients for fixing their own drafting errors?
You should inform them that you dispute that portion of the fee bill and do not pay it until they justify it by showing it had to be done even dispite that one error. Often a draft needs to be revised for several reasons.
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