David Paige on Detroit’s Bankruptcy Fees

Posted on August 1st, 2013 by Legal Fee Advisors

The city of Detroit recently filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, and with such a large bankruptcy filing comes the inevitable discussion of the associated legal fees. Legal Fee Advisors’ founder David Paige was asked to comment on the subject for a piece on the Westlaw Insider blog by Reuters Legal Reporter Tom Hals.

Entitled “Judge to keep careful eye on Detroit bankruptcy fees” the piece explores Judge Steven Rhodes’ actions in relation to the bankruptcy. Last week, Rhodes appointed an examiner to review all professional fees that will be paid by Detroit, and he has used fee examiners in past cases as well.

In this article, David Paige, the managing director of Legal Fee Advisors is quoted regarding the two areas where examiners train their focus: disclosure and efficiency, saying “Professionals fail to break down their work in segments of hours, or otherwise fail to provide enough detail about how their time was spent. Or they throw too many resources at a task, such as spending $25,000 to research the bankruptcy code. An examiner will ask ‘shouldn’t you have known that?’”

Westlaw subscribes can read the full text of the article here.

If you have questions or opinions about fees in the Detroit bankruptcy case or other cases like this, come join the conversation with Paige and other legal fee experts in our LinkedIn group, or contact Legal Fee Advisors here.

Tags: Bankruptcy