- Legal auditing
According to the National Association of Legal Auditing (NALA), legal auditing is a
litigation management practice andrisk management tool, used byinsurance and other consumers of legal services, to determine if hourly billing errors, abuses, and inefficiencies exist by carefully examining and indentifying unreasonableattorney fees and expenses. [ [http://www.thenala.org/ National Association of Legal Fee Analysis ] ]Methods
Legal auditors conduct a detailed analysis of original time records, attorney work production, expenses and hourly rate benchmarks. The purpose of a legal bill auditing is to save money for the insurance company and their clients. Many audits measure performance and quality of services in addition to cost alone. Legal Bill Auditors may be responsible for monitoring the matter as it progresses for purposes of giving a second opinion in major cases or as a post-mortem. Legal bill audits give insurance companies and their clients peace of mind and avoid possible future mistakes.Fact|date=February 2008
Recently, the firm Stuart Maue claimed to have conducted the largest legal audit on record during the
OxyContin litigation, involving claims for attorney fees and expenses amounting to over $400,000,000 billed and audited, with the final negotiated settlement resulting in a reduction of $200,000,000 from the total billed amount. [ [http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/07/03/daily22.html Stuart Maue completes audit on $400M claim - "St. Louis Business Journal" ] ]Taxation of Costs
In
common law countries, when the above exercise is carried out by an official to determine legal costs it is called "taxation of costs ".Notes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
