Billable Hour Surprises: How Lawyers are like Auto Mechanics
Why should any lawyer be surprised that clients don't like the uncertainty of hourly billing? Have you ever taken a car into the shop and been surprised by how much a repair cost?
Let me start by making it clear that I like my auto mechanic. I've taken my cars to the same neighborhood shop for a number of years and have always been pleased and satisfied with the quality of the work and the level of customer service. And even though my car has been in the shop for more than a week now, I'm still satisfied that I've taken it to the right place.
Until this past week, however, I never realized how much auto mechanics are like billable hour lawyers. My ordeal started with steam billowing out from under my hood as I pulled up in front of my house. Like many legal clients, I didn't know exactly what was wrong, but I knew I had a problem.
With a few prayers (and some less than complete stops at stop signs), I made it to the auto repair shop. Here's a synopsis of my subsequent conversation with the mechanic:
Mechanic: "Well, Pete, you've got a broken thingamawhatsit hose, but we have to take the engine block apart to get to it."
Me: "Can you fix it?
Mechanic: "Sure, but we won't know if we need to fix anything else until we get the engine block apart and order the part. Call back on Thursday."
Me: "Thursday? Wow, that seems like a long time--about how much will this cost?"
Mechanic: "Well, that depends. This is a labor-intensive job--probably about 5 hours of labor, plus parts, but there's a lot we don't know yet."
Starting to sound familiar? It's now been 8 days since I took the car in, and the "investigation" alone has taken more than 5 hours, not to mention the total amount of time it will eventually take to fix the problem. And there's not a thing I can do about it because they have my car in the shop, with it's hood open and engine parts disassembled. I just have to see it through to the end and hope the bill isn't too large.
That's the experience most legal clients have when they pay by the hour. Like I said, I like my mechanic, but I'm becoming more and more convinced that there is a better way to bill my clients.
UPDATE (3/2/10): I Picked up my car last night. It runs great, but the $1500 bill was about twice what I expected from my initial conversation with the mechanic. To be fair, he kept me apprised of everything they had to do, so I knew the bill was creeping up, but it was still a shock. The lesson: even the best customer service in a pure billable hour situation can be very frustrating.

That's right. Some fictional characters start to take on a life of their own and there are a number of legal rights that protect intellectual property interests in characters. It is something I have spent a lot of time doing and I enjoy it enough that it makes sense to write about at least once a week. So here goes. My first character of the week:
As with many of the iconic characters in popular culture, Kermit evolved over time.
Online comic book store
In their cease and desist (
"Our competitor is infringing our trademark and killing our business! You've got to make them stop, whatever it takes! (pause . . . wait for it . . . ) But we can't afford an expensive lawsuit, especially when we have no idea what it will cost. Which way do we go?"

Finally, just last week, 
Pete Salsich III is an occasionally accomplished illustrator and relatively weak guitar player whose secret identity is that of an


Geoff Gerber keeps waiting for his superpowers to materialize. In the meantime, he uses his lawyer-powers to litigate intellectual property