In this binding arbitration before a retired JAMS judge, we represented a financial services company that had been overbilled about $200,000 as a result of the law firm surreptitiously hiking its hourly attorney fee rates without providing proper notice. The firm claimed that the hourly fee increases could be discerned from the statements, which the client admitted had been reviewed. But, the “new” hourly rates could only have been determined by dividing the time spent on each task by the dollars shown as billed, which we contended was not proper notice. We showed that the firm’s billing software had the ability to show the actual hourly rates being charged, but they had deleted that column in setting out its billing format for invoices, in effect “hiding” the hourly rates. The arbitrator decided on the spot that the notice of increase was inadequate and ordered a full disgorgement of the improperly increased fees.
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