How do you explain to a lawyer accusing you of double-dipping for charging for additional copies of transcript already prepared?

[Bill Parsons]

A friend of mine sold transcripts of a case to all the parties involved in the case.

Then one lawyer came back and said I need another 2 copies, one of which has to be sealed for presentation to the court.

The friend set a very fair price for the additional transcripts, and the lawyer has accused my friend of double-dipping and charging twice for the transcript.

Has anyone got any good standard responses to the lawyer to explain that my friend is not double-dipping but charging as is the standard in the industry?

Bill

[Lisa Migliore Black]

I would charge a small reprint fee, something in line with the price I charge for exhibits.

[Quyen]

I like to keep everything simple. I would just say he's being charged for time and materials. It takes you time to print and bind, and toner and paper certainly don't come for free (or cheap) the last time I checked.

Oh, and unless you're going to jump on a pony to deliver his copies to him, postage costs money too.

[Judy]

Ohhh, Veronica, I like your response better than mine. You get a thumbs up.

[Todd Olivas]

By that attorney's same logic, you should be able to ask him to draft a letter (or whatever) for free since he's already written the same kind of letter for someone else. "Hey, you've already written it once, just change the name."

[Judy]

Sorry, MA, wasn't me.

Maybe ask him how he gets away with billing Client #2 for reading/generating correspondence while he's representing Client #1 in a depo. That's what I call double-dipping.

Or say he has a pleading (or whatever) on his computer that he generated for Client A and he got to bill and collected four hour's time. Then, he has substantially the same case but with new names, so he goes in and changes the name on the previous pleading. It only took him ten minutes to change the names, but he still bills Client B the same four hours' time. How can he in good conscience do such a thing?

Or, he goes into the grocery store and buys a loaf of bread. He brings the loaf home and the kids eat it in a day, so he has nothing for his sandwiches for the following week. Can he go the grocer and tell the grocer he needs another loaf of bread for free? I don't think so.

[Brenda Rogers]

As Virginia said, it's like selling copies of anything else -- books, music, etc. The attorneys are receiving a service. Services must be paid for. An attorney doesn't give away his expertise just because he doesn't have to do research on a subject; he charges for it. And he certainly shouldn't expect to receive a service from someone else for free when he wouldn't dream of doing it himself.