Highest Paid Court-Appointed Attorney in Ohio Billed 29-Hour Day

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Gabrielle Bluestone

09/22/13 03:30PM

Filed to: Lawyers

An Ohio attorney who handled more than 800 court-appointed cases last year billed for workdays that included 29 hours, 23 hours, 21.5 hours, and 21 hours. In total, his billable hours averaged out into nine hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Despite the Big Law urban legend of lawyers stetching out billable hours by doing work on flights across different time zones, Dayton attorney Ben Swift is going to need a better explanation when he comes before an Ohio disciplinary committee.

Swift's attorney, ostensibly billing slightly more plausible hours, has told reporters that Swift did the work he claimed but kept sloppy records. Court-appointed attorney fees are paid by the state and county.

Swift was audited by the Dayton Bar Association grievance committee after the Dayton Daily News reported he was the highest-paid court-appointed attorney in the state.

[image via Shutterstock]

The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material.

MsM Gabrielle Bluestone 09/22/13 04:06PM

What's the billing rate? .10, .25? If he's billing at .25, and rounding up a 2 minute phone call, etc..., all day long, he could come up with some crazy hours.

Still, 29 hours doesn't quite seem possible.

EasttoMidwest MsM 09/22/13 05:29PM

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. These days it's usually .25, right? 800 cases, answer a question or an email about 50 of them and bam, you're in crazy territory.

But still not 29 hours a day territory, probably.

wrappedupinbooks MsM 09/22/13 05:53PM

I don't know how it works for public attorneys, but at the private firm I work at there is also a "billing partner" on every case going over your bills and cutting things. Like if you spent three hours doing something and the partner thinks it should have been a 1.5 hour job, the 1.5 hours is all the client gets charged for. Even if you were billing .25's for every tiny thing you did on your 800 different cases, theoretically someone should be condensing that.

MsM wrappedupinbooks 09/22/13 06:45PM

I also work at a law firm. We don't have a partner that reviews time for each case on an on going basis, but it's reviewed before we submit fee and cost motions, and some things get cut then. We do plaintiff class actions, so we don't bill our clients, hence the not ongoing review.

MsM EasttoMidwest 09/22/13 06:51PM

My firm bills at .10, but I know a lot of firms that do bill at .25.

snarkylicious1138 Gabrielle Bluestone 09/22/13 04:34PM

Sounds like some cops, who once billed for 200 hours in a 2 week pay period. And no one batted an eyelash at such padding. Obviously, we've hired Jem'Hadar.

AndreaTierson snarkylicious1138 09/22/13 05:22PM

Nice DS9 reference.

Flame Princess, Garbage-Monger snarkylicious1138 09/22/13 06:34PM

I'm pretty sure your city's finest were loaded up on a different kind of White, if any.

phunkshun Flame Princess, Garbage-Monger 09/22/13 07:26PM

This entire conversation thread fills me with endless love.

Srynerson Gabrielle Bluestone 09/22/13 11:27PM

Billing over 24 hours in a day would seem to be a problem and I'm sure, given the overall hours billed this guy was doing some padding, but I will say that I have billed 21 hours or more in a day myself a few times in my career, principally in connection with trial preparation (although it is definitely something I would prefer not to do).

John Boehner Gabrielle Bluestone 09/22/13 05:14PM

I am about 70 percent certain that that attorney saved me from having to be involved in a messy trial where a friend of a friend was assaulted by 5 dudes and ended up stabbing one of them with a switch blade.

KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON, YOU BLESSED CRIMINAL LAWYER.