Honesty In Billing

An attorney in South Carolina was indicted on 30 counts of mail fraud. He had charged fees “at the direction of an officer of an insurance company for which [he] did defense work…time and charges to several of the company’s files on which the time billed had not been spent.” He was placed on interim suspension after the indictment but the criminal charges were dismissed. He initially contended that there had been no ethical misconduct because he was following the client’s directions and had not billed for work that he had not performed. The South Carolina Supreme Court accepted his admission that he had violated Rule 1.5 (fees) and imposed a six-month suspension retroactive to the interim suspension. The court concluded that bills for legal services must be truthful and accurate even if the client representative directs otherwise (he was fired for paying fictitious claims and later convicted of criminal offenses unrelated to this case).