Law
In law, double billing refers to charging an hourly rate to two clients for the same time spent working. The American Bar Association prohibits double billing. It is tantamount to overcharging, since the amount of time actually spent working on any one client's work is less than the amount billed to that client.
Associates and partners alike at large law firms face significant pressure to double bill or to "pad" their hours in order to reduce overwork. These attorneys are usually required to bill 1800 to 2000 hours per year. This can ideally work out to a 40 hour work week, but it is usually 60 or more, since most attorneys must spend one hour in the office for every two they can bill to a specific client. In 1998, Cameron Stracher's book Double Billing suggested that double billing is common in law firms, but that implication was misleading. However, several recent studies suggest that at least 1/3 of lawyers admit that they double-bill clients on at least an occasional basis, and that more than half of lawyers do not believe that double billing constitutes an ethical violation.
Read more about this topic: Double Billing
Famous quotes containing the word law:
“Judge—A law student who marks his own examination-papers.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children...”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 4:8,9.
“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)