A source has provided a letter purportedly from Bobby Thompson from the Thompson Law Offices. Just like the other Huseby post, I’ll let everybody see the letter and then dive in with my commentary.
First thing’s first, it’s surprising to me that there’s $200 in fees and none of them say “appearance fee.”
Then there’s the part about the $4.20 copy fee after original counsel paid almost $6.00. New York City reporters would probably explode if their copy rate was anything close to $4.00. When I was a young reporter, Diamond told some reporters it didn’t pay copies, and copies were about $0.25 a page here. Since I started publishing up a storm about the unfair treatment of reporters, people have seen raises as high as $1.00 a copy. These guys are looking to pull in 4x that. And I bet they all tell lawyers we’re the reason everything is so expensive.
As for not paying anything but the testimony, that’s debatable. I would demand full payment for a caption page and exhibits index, but it’s understandable why someone might not want to pay full-price pages for a word index, which can be provided at the click of a button (kind of like that thing we disparage digitals for.)
But the heart of what I’m getting at is this: Look at that initial $1,000 charge. The attorney re-evaluates the charges and thinks a more reasonable number would be in the ballpark of $700 cheaper. Some of this we could conceivably wave away by saying “attorneys want everything for free,” but I think we need to come to terms with the idea that the billing game has changed. It appears that attorneys are being billed far more than we’re charging, and we’re not in a great position to tell them “it’s not us, really.” There’s case law on this, so that tells me it’s a lot more widespread than we acknowledge in our circles.
Reached out to Mr. Thompson by email and never heard back.
For those of you reading, it’s not us, really.
I’ve heard some pro-firm reporters argue against billing transparency. “If you’re a [insert trade here], you don’t know what the construction company is charging the client.” UM. Yes, you do. It’s your rate plus x markup or whatever terms you agreed to. There shouldn’t be surprise charges or unknown rates in there.
eye opening!!
Definitely.
Amazing stuff. Agencies rip them off, then us. 4$ isn’t even a gal of gas, a doz eggs. If he doesn’t want a word index, fine. And if u want a transcript w no cover, appearance, index hell a cert page, then the whole thing is worthless. He makes many hundreds an hour thinks his copy should be 2.50. These lawyers have got to be educated on court reporting. I’m not coffee girl. You want it, you pay – and Mr Agency, you pay us OUR worth, bc without us – you make nothing. Cheers.