I have had very few interactions with lawyers in my life. I had to hire one to handle my mom’s estate. It was a simple deal, I was the only heir, no drama, etc.

Everything was finalized so I thought in October of 2020 - over a year ago.I thought what they billed me was reasonable and I paid promptly. I have not had to do anything regarding the estate, haven’t had to contact the lawyer, everything mom owned has been transferred into my name or sold, etc.

Anyway the lawyer sent me an email asking me if I needed anything last month. I didn’t respond as I thought it was a sales type email and I have been busy working 80-90 hrs a week. I get a bill from them today for $55 for emailing me to ask if I need anything. What in the actual fuck? Is this normal procedure? I guess it would have been courteous of me to have responded but then would they have billed me more for reading my response?

What did the invoice say as the line item charge?

Dumb fuck probably ran through his email outbox for that month and just dinged each email as a flag to bill each client

I worked for my universities patent office in college part time.  I managed the analysis of all the legal bills.  After cross referencing the dates, hours and attorneys charges across hundreds of patents…. We found one partner with several days billing across many months in excess of 24 hours on a specific date.

That email should have been no more than a .1.  He would have to bill at $550 per hour for that to be reasonable, assuming that it is reasonable to charge someone for churning (which is lawyer talk for making senseless work).  I would not pay it.  I would ask him to describe the legal work he did for that time entry.

Lawyer here. That’s shit. That’s charging you for fishing for work from you. No way I’d pay.  Send him a short note back that you’ll pay when you ask for his help.

I would imagine you were no longer under contract with him at that point and thus not liable for that charge.

Send him a bill for "email management" for $200.

During the 2 year divorce where was nothing more than stretching out a very simple divorce until the firm could make a considerable profit...

I would call to ask if something was coming up and told no... a call less than 3 minutes I would get a bill for 75.00.

This an attorney I knew for about 15 years who was doing me a favor and considered a "professional friend"'.

Two years and 3 dozen+ handguns sold...

I will never sell another gun again.

Not a lawyer nor have any knowledge on legal billing but any chance the original agreement you signed last year had a recurring retainer fee?
Is this such a thing?

Possibly, maybe for corporate law work.  Sure as shit not for $55.

I'm betting this dudes admin just checked his calendar and email outbox and just started finding client contacts to charge.

No way I'd pay that.  Call them and tell them WTF.

Is there a term for "unsolicited work"?  You didn't solicit this lawyer's services once the estate matters were settled.  This would amount to a business bringing a product to your door and dropping it off, then charging you for it.  Again unless you were in a valid and existing contract, then I can't imagine any way you would be on the hook for those charges.

This, and I'd add that you'll be unlikely to ask for help if he does this crap again.

I'm a lawyer and there is no possible way I would even consider doing something like that.  If I were on the receiving end I would probably make an ethics complaint if the bill wasn't "corrected" immediately.  Once the engagement is over you can't just send out random bills.

Bullshit invoice. Maybe the Bar Association would be interested in hearing about his practices.

email the lawyer back and tell them you assume this invoice was sent in error and will disregard it.

dont pay it.

but dont be surprised if you contact them to ask about it and they bill you for their time to respond. yes i've seen that happen.

Not a lawyer but am IT support to a small firm

Sounds like a Timeslips sweep function that it slipped through to actual billing.  More careful editing needed.


Timeslips sweep function scans the local email, local hard drive and networked drives for any legal actions between two dates and prepares the found items for insert into the TimesSlips database from which billing is produced.