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So you just got the bill from your lawyer, you can't understand it and the total due is way more than you expected. What to do next?

Read Your Fee Agreement

It's important to thoroughly read through your fee agreement to make sure you understand how you agreed your lawyer would bill you. Pay careful attention to what the fee agreement says about:

• How often you'd be billed
• Whether you'd be billed for faxes and copying, and if so, how much
• Whether you'd be alerted before your billing exceeded a certain amount
• At what rate you'd be billed for paralegal and assistant work
• Whether other lawyers would be doing work on your case, and if so, how much you'd be charged per hour for their services
• Any estimate of the total billed amount

Accounting

If you don't understand the bill, or it isn't very detailed, you'll want to ask your lawyer for what's called an "accounting" a detailed description of the services your lawyer provided to you and for which you're being billed. If your lawyer is billing on an hourly basis, it's not enough for the bill to say something like "15 hours at $200/hour." The bill should detail, hour by hour, what the lawyer did. Many lawyers bill in six-minute increments, so the bill should be detailed.

Talk To Your Lawyer

If you still feel your bill is unfair after getting a detailed accounting of your lawyer's services and carefully reading your fee agreement, discuss it directly with your lawyer. In communicating your confusion or frustration, your lawyer may realize he or she miscommunicated as to how the billing would be done, double-billed for the same services, or accidentally billed for time that was spent on errors made by the lawyer (which you shouldn't have to pay for).

The worst that can come from a talk with your lawyer over the bill is that you will better understand how your lawyer arrived at the final billing total.

Mediation

Before taking a fee dispute to court, it's a good idea to explore the possibilities of mediation and/or arbitration through your local bar association. These programs allow you to resolve the dispute faster and more efficiently than through a lawsuit. And it's often cheaper and less stressful than going to court.

Many bar associations have lawyer fee mediation programs, with a neutral third party called a "mediator." The mediator doesn't decide how much the fee should be, but can help you and your lawyer negotiate an agreement everyone can live with. A mediator will usually meet with both parties separately and together as is appropriate.

If you reach an agreement through mediation, the mediator will put the agreement in writing and have both parties sign it.

If mediation isn't successful, you can try arbitration as a next step.

Arbitration

If mediation doesn't work or isn't available, many bar associations (in at least 41 states) also have fee dispute arbitration programs. You and your lawyer must agree in writing to be bound by the decision of an arbitrator, a neutral third party who hears all the evidence from you and others, reads over any relevant documents and reaches a written decision on what the fee should be.

Lawsuits

If you don't pay your bill, your lawyer will likely sue you and you'll be forced to defend your position in court. Be prepared to support your position with documentation such as witnesses, correspondence from your lawyer and any other documents you think may help your case.

Reporting Your Lawyer For Unethical Behavior

If you lawyer has stolen money from you such as by pocketing money due to you from a settlement or court judgment- you must report the incident to your state bar association. Almost all state bar associations have client victim compensation funds set aside to reimburse clients whose lawyers illegally took money from them.