How much time padding happens Forum

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How much time padding happens

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Oct 27, 2011 12:57 am

How much does time/billing padding happen? Do partners/bosses turn a blind eye to the practice or actively discourage it?

Also, are associates/partners likely to participate in if your client expects 10 hours of work and you finish the work in 8 hours and surf the web for the 2 hours but bill 9 hours?

cattleprod

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by cattleprod » Thu Oct 27, 2011 3:10 am

Anonymous User wrote:How much does time/billing padding happen? Do partners/bosses turn a blind eye to the practice or actively discourage it?

Also, are associates/partners likely to participate in if your client expects 10 hours of work and you finish the work in 8 hours and surf the web for the 2 hours but bill 9 hours?
The ratio is closer to work 4 hours, surf net 5 hours, lunch 1 hour, bill 12 hours.

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Oct 27, 2011 11:40 am

I've seen partners give their employees the benefit of the doubt that they are billing correctly.

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paratactical

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by paratactical » Thu Oct 27, 2011 11:59 am

IME as a biglaw paralegal, it can vary greatly depending on the attorney overseeing billing and the client. I've also worked on bankruptcy litigations where all time entries had to be submitted to the court, so those hours were often reduced and requires intense procedures.

EliHBCU

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by EliHBCU » Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:02 am

I thought your question was a very interesting one, so I had Alison Monahan address it in a short article. I hope you like the answer she came up with. =)

http://thestudentappeal.com/op-ed/under ... able-hours

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:38 pm

OP Here:

Thanks to EliHBCU and Alison Monahan. +2 eprops for u!

EliHBCU

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by EliHBCU » Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:18 pm

Thanks. =)

ajmax8

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by ajmax8 » Thu Nov 03, 2011 4:21 pm

also, this article:

--LinkRemoved--

some of the comments after the article give other perspectives

03121202698008

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by 03121202698008 » Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:00 pm

paratactical wrote:IME as a biglaw paralegal, it can vary greatly depending on the attorney overseeing billing and the client. I've also worked on bankruptcy litigations where all time entries had to be submitted to the court, so those hours were often reduced and requires intense procedures.
No joke. Last summer one of the interns got the experience of pouring over an appointed counsel's billing submissions to decide if they were appropriate or the judge should sanction him for padding.

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paratactical

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by paratactical » Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:21 pm

.
Last edited by paratactical on Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

turbotong

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by turbotong » Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:44 pm

ajmax8 wrote:also, this article:

--LinkRemoved--

some of the comments after the article give other perspectives
The word "therapist" should never be used as part of a web address.

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omninode

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by omninode » Thu Nov 03, 2011 6:00 pm

turbotong wrote:
ajmax8 wrote:also, this article:

--LinkRemoved--

some of the comments after the article give other perspectives
The word "therapist" should never be used as part of a web address.
Seriously. I read that as "the peoples, the rapist" and had a small moment of confusion.

ajmax8

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by ajmax8 » Fri Nov 04, 2011 8:15 am

omninode wrote:
turbotong wrote:
ajmax8 wrote:also, this article:

--LinkRemoved--

some of the comments after the article give other perspectives
The word "therapist" should never be used as part of a web address.
Seriously. I read that as "the peoples, the rapist" and had a small moment of confusion.
"As a psychiatrist, I was a professional twice over - an analyst and a therapist. The world's first analrapist."

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turbotong

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by turbotong » Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:07 am

omninode wrote:
turbotong wrote:
ajmax8 wrote:also, this article:

--LinkRemoved--

some of the comments after the article give other perspectives
The word "therapist" should never be used as part of a web address.
Seriously. I read that as "the peoples, the rapist" and had a small moment of confusion.
Yea, that's what happened to me. The parallelism from "The people" doesn't help their cause.
In the meantime, everyone should head over to penisland.net
They sell some really cool pens from Pen Island.

EliHBCU

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by EliHBCU » Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:02 pm

omninode wrote:
turbotong wrote:
ajmax8 wrote:also, this article:

--LinkRemoved--

some of the comments after the article give other perspectives
The word "therapist" should never be used as part of a web address.
Seriously. I read that as "the peoples, the rapist" and had a small moment of confusion.


haha! I saw it as "the rapist" too!

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Re: How much time padding happens

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:32 pm

blowhard wrote:
paratactical wrote:IME as a biglaw paralegal, it can vary greatly depending on the attorney overseeing billing and the client. I've also worked on bankruptcy litigations where all time entries had to be submitted to the court, so those hours were often reduced and requires intense procedures.
No joke. Last summer one of the interns got the experience of pouring over an appointed counsel's billing submissions to decide if they were appropriate or the judge should sanction him for padding.
I had to do that this summer. Some asshat PD was routinely billing over 24 hours a day. And he bragged to the local newspaper about how hard he worked.

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