[MRM]

Len, if you do what is suggested above, you will probably find out a lot about your lawyer, buy not in the way you think. If you call on a pretense to quibble about a small item on the bill, a lawyer who is overcharging you will probably negotiate with you, mark his bills down to make you happy and upcharge you somewhere else where you'll never see it. A good lawyer who is busy and giving you good value for the time he is charging is likely to send the file back to you. Look the bill over. Are you happy with the rate and time? If everything looks good and you're happy with his work leave him alone. He's treating you well. If you give him the impression you're going to flyspeck his bills he will either overcharge you to make up for the discounts he promises you or he'll send you back the file. If it happened to me I would give the client one short phone call explaination of my bill. At the second call I would tell the client he could accept my bill or take his file back. I might be more prickly than most lawyers, but I wouldn't tolerate that from a client because doing that usually suggests the client will be more difficult as the case goes on. Don't create an unpleasant feeling between you and your attorney if the bills look good the way they are. But if you think he's juicing the bills pull the file immediately.