is-x-legal fees attorney-fees invoice
Is it legal for a law firm or some company to bill a client for a report on substantiated expenses if the client were to ask for that information?
<p>Is it legal for a lawyer/law-firm/general company to invoice a client for substantiating expenses and providing receipts for previous work?</p>
<p>Example, XYZ fee receipts to USPTO, WIPO,FedEX, paying subcontractors.</p>
<p>Substantiation is the supporting documentation or data (receipts, explanation) --benstrat.com.</p>

<p>The analysis is different for law firms and lawyers, who have an ethical obligation to charge &quot;reasonable fees&quot; (in the U.S. pursuant to various versions of Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5) and for other businesses, which are not subject to the same regulation.</p>
<p>While my personal business practice has always been not to bill clients for discussions about billing, and that is a common business practice among lawyers, there is not a <em>per se</em> prohibition against doing so. It would usually be considered reasonable to charge fees involved in doing the same work in connection with a court filing such as a bill of costs or other fee request from a court. In either case, for this kind of work, reasonable fee requirements might end up requiring that this work be done by a paralegal or other administrative staff person rather than a lawyer charging a full legal fee rate, when possible.</p>
<p>Whether these charges are authorized would also depend upon whether the contract between the parties authorized them, particularly in the case of a non-lawyer party where contract authorization is usually the dominant consideration regarding whether charges are authorized.</p>
