Top judge attacks lawyer fees

WA's most senior judge has launched an attack on the way lawyers are charging for their services - warning that the favoured system risked clients being billed for the time practitioners spent thinking about their case in the shower.

Chief Justice Wayne Martin yesterday called on the legal profession and its regulatory bodies to move away from the dominant use of "billable hours", a system which sees clients charged for every six minutes legal staff devote to their case.

In a speech delivered to the Perth Press Club at the launch of Law Week, Chief Justice Martin said the thirst for billable hours - and the money they brought - clashed with the interests of the client, rewarded inefficiency and over-servicing, and placed mounting pressure on lawyers to meet billing targets.

This resulted in customer dissatisfaction and disillusioned lawyers who were left working excessive hours and were less able to take part in professional development or pro bono work.

WA Law Society president Hylton Quail yesterday said the speech gave "food for thought" but suggested that practitioners were already using a range of billing methods and that job dissatisfaction among lawyers was more a cultural issue within firms than a time-billing issue.

Chief Justice Martin said time billing carried an inherent clash between the client's desire to quickly resolve their case and the law firm's interest in maximising time spent and money made.

It also left some lawyers with an incentive to "pad" their timesheets, he said.

"Short telephone calls may be recorded as having taken six minutes," he said.

"Clients may be charged for the lawyer thinking about their case while driving to work, or showering, or shaving."

Time billing didn't make allowance for the client's capacity to pay, left them uncertain of how many hours would be spent on their case, and shouldering the risk if the case went awry, Chief Justice Martin said.

_The West Australian _understands that average fees for a senior counsel are from $650 to $700 per hour, and from $550 to $600 per hour for a partner at a big law firm.