Independent Analysis for Complex Legal Fee and Insurance Matters
Legal fee audits, claims-handling analysis, and expert witness services for counsel and clients in significant disputes nationwide.
EXPERIENCE & REACH
Experience Across Complex Legal Fee, Insurance, and Claims Matters
Jim Schratz brings decades of legal, insurance, and claims experience to significant disputes involving law firms, insurers, corporations, and government entities throughout the United States.
AREAS OF FOCUS
Matter-Specific Analysis
Explore Jim’s analysis, representative work, and practical resources in the area most relevant to the matter you are handling.
REPRESENTATIVE WORK
Selected Matters & Court Treatment
A selection of legal fee audits, claims-handling analyses, expert work, and judicial treatment of Jim’s work.
FEATURED PRACTITIONER RESOURCE
See the Analysis Behind the Opinion
The supporting materials on this site provide a closer look at how legal fee, claims-handling, and expert issues are evaluated against the underlying record.
Review audit methodology and court treatment, examine sample reports and declarations, and compare the records, assumptions, and analysis supporting an expert opinion.
- Audit Methodology & Court Treatment
- Reports, Declarations & Work Product
- Claims Files, Billing Records & Supporting Evidence
20 Red Flags of Attorney Overbilling
Multiple unrelated tasks are combined into one large time entry, making it impossible to determine how much time was spent on each activity.
Numerous lawyers attend the same deposition, hearing, meeting, or conference when fewer would reasonably suffice.
This is one of the easiest issues to verify by comparing billing records with transcripts and court records.
These tasks may be treated as firm overhead rather than billable legal work, depending on the matter and applicable standards.
Time is billed without corresponding evidence in the file, such as pleadings, correspondence, research, deposition preparation, or other tangible work product.
REQUEST A CASE REVIEW
Have a Matter That Warrants a Closer Look?
Send a brief, non-confidential description of the matter, issue presented, and any relevant deadlines for an initial review.