The Invoice

Prebill and Write-Down

The prebill is the draft invoice a billing lawyer reviews before anything reaches the client. A write-down bills less time than an entry shows, and a no-charge entry bills none, usually for time that served the firm, such as training or fixing its own mistake. Each is time the firm worked and will not be paid for, so each should rest on a reason the lawyer could give the client.

Costs

Money the firm pays out for the client’s case, such as an expert’s fee, a transcript, or a share of a mediator’s fee. The comment to Rule 4-1.5 says filing fees, transcription, and the like should be charged at the actual amount the lawyer paid. General overhead belongs in the fee, though a lawyer may agree with the client on a reasonable charge for in-house costs such as copying or computerized research.

Operating and Trust Accounts

A firm keeps money it has earned in its operating account and money that belongs to clients in a trust account. Rule 5-1.1(a)(1) puts advances for fees, costs, and expenses in trust, and Rule 5-1.1(b) says money entrusted for a specific purpose may be applied only to that purpose. Florida Bar Ethics Opinion 21-2 lets lawyers take payments through online payment services, if client money comes in through a separate account with the service and moves into trust promptly.

Card Processing Charges

The fee a card processor keeps from a card payment, which Rule 4-1.5(h) lets a lawyer pass on to the client at the actual charge for that client’s transaction. Opinion 21-2 has the lawyer pay the charge, not the trust account, unless lawyer and client agree otherwise, and it keeps chargebacks, the reversals of disputed card payments, out of trust. Section 501.0117, Florida Statutes, still bars a seller’s credit card surcharge, but the Eleventh Circuit held the statute unconstitutional in Dana’s Railroad Supply v. Attorney General.

Fee Arbitration

The Florida Bar’s program for deciding a dispute between a lawyer and a client over a fee, under Chapter 14 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar. Unless a discipline sanction requires it, both sides must agree, in a fee contract carrying the bold notice Rule 4-1.5(i) requires or in a request both sign. The award binds both sides, and the comment to Rule 4-1.5 says a lawyer should conscientiously consider submitting a fee dispute to the program.

Withdrawal for Nonpayment

Rule 4-1.16(b)(3) lets a lawyer withdraw when a client fails substantially to meet an obligation to the lawyer, such as paying, and has had reasonable warning that the lawyer will withdraw. In a pending case the lawyer also needs the court’s permission: Florida Rule of General Practice and Judicial Administration 2.505(f)(1) requires a written order after a hearing on the lawyer’s motion. On leaving, the lawyer must protect the client’s interests, including by giving reasonable notice and refunding any advance of a fee or expense not yet earned or incurred.

Charging Lien

A lawyer’s equitable right to have fees and costs for work in a case paid from the judgment or recovery in that case. The Supreme Court of Florida requires a contract, an understanding that payment will come from the recovery, a dispute or an attempt to avoid payment, and notice before the case ends. In John F. Schutz, P.L. v. Ally Financial Inc., the Fourth District treated a notice that named no amount and no asset as a notice of intent, which bound no bank.

Retaining Lien

A lawyer’s right to keep a client’s papers, money, and other property already in the lawyer’s possession until the client pays for all the lawyer’s work, recognized in Daniel Mones, P.A. v. Smith. Money entrusted for a specific purpose is outside it unless the client agreed fees could come from it, and Rule 5-1.1(b) bars setting off attorney’s fees against client money. When a lawyer and client dispute the lawyer’s share of money in trust, Rule 5-1.1(f) keeps the disputed part in trust until the dispute is resolved and has the rest paid out promptly.

Part 1: Decide What the Client Pays

Temko & Eden, P.A. A three-lawyer firm on Beach Street in Daytona Beach. It still carries the names of its late founders. Dana Whitfield, the managing partner, handles civil litigation and real estate closings. Luis Ortega, a partner, handles family law and probate, and Kim Nguyen, an associate, handles personal injury. Marcy Cole is the legal assistant, Ron Pike is the bookkeeper and office manager, and you are the firm’s paralegal.

Temko Eden represents Coastal Keel Marine, Inc. in its breach of contract suit against Dunlin Dock & Seawall, LLC over a seawall, and it bills the case by the hour. Download the invoice workbook and read the Engagement Terms sheet first, because every decision in this activity answers to it.

A note from Dana Whitfield. Ron has run February’s prebill for Coastal Keel. Every entry matches our records, so the question isn’t whether the work was done. Decide what Coastal Keel should pay for each entry and each cost, and give me your reason in a few words. I’ll approve what you send up.

On the Prebill sheet, choose a decision for each of the 16 fee entries and the 4 costs: Bill, Write down, or No charge. For a write-down, enter the hours the client should pay for; for a cost, enter the amount. In the Reason column, name what decides it: an engagement term, a rule, or a fact in the File note. Then run the Write-Down Sparring Partner on the three decisions you are least sure of, and change any whose reason did not hold up.

Part 2: Send the Invoice

The Invoice sheet builds itself from your decisions, and an entry you did not bill appears on it with the words No charge. If you would rather build the invoice in the free invoicing tool in Resources, enter your billed entries and costs there and download the PDF. Read the invoice top to bottom as Coastal Keel will read it. At the foot of the Invoice sheet, in the box marked Payment instructions, write how to pay this invoice and how to send a deposit, in words that keep the two apart. Then write the cover email to Coastal Keel’s president, about 150 words, for Dana Whitfield to send. Say what the invoice covers, what the firm did not charge for and why, and whom to call with questions. Run the Client’s Eye Reader on the invoice and the email, and revise anything that would make the client call to ask what you meant.

Part 3: Route the Card Payment

A note from Ron Pike, March 6. Coastal Keel paid by card this morning through the Pay Invoice link: $11,412.50. Their controller says it covers the January invoice and the $5,000 deposit Dana asked for toward the engineer’s second inspection. All of it landed in operating, and the payment service kept $331.26. Where does each dollar go, and who pays the $331.26?

The Payment sheet holds the payment service’s record. Fill in its cells marked (your entry): the credit to the January invoice, and what belongs in the trust account and what stays in operating. Then say which account bears the processing charge and whether the firm bills that charge to Coastal Keel, with the rule or engagement term behind each answer. Next, write Ron a note of about 100 words in the box marked Your note to Ron Pike. Say what to move and why, under Rule 5-1.1 and Opinion 21-2, and what to change so the next deposit lands in the right account. Before you give it to him, test your plan with the Trust Routing Checker.

Part 4: Answer the Dispute

From Coastal Keel’s president, March 20. Dana, I’ve looked at February. It’s more than January, and we haven’t gotten anywhere near a trial. Your associate billed us for standing in our yard. My controller tells me Florida law bans credit card surcharges, so we won’t pay your card fee either. We aren’t paying February or anything else until this case is over. Take your fees out of whatever Dunlin pays us.

A note from Dana Whitfield, April 3. Coastal Keel has paid nothing since March 6, and the March invoice, $4,300.00, went out April 1. I held the card charge off it until this is settled. Draft a letter for my signature that answers the president’s email point by point, with what our file and our terms show. Tell him what the firm will do with the $5,000 in trust; Ron asked whether we could pay February out of it. Offer to take any amount he thinks is unreasonable to the Bar’s fee arbitration program, and explain how that works. Then give him fair warning: unless Coastal Keel pays both invoices, or pays what it doesn’t dispute and signs a request to arbitrate the rest, by April 17, we will ask the court’s permission to withdraw. Draft the notice of charging lien too. I’ll file it with the motion if it comes to that, and it shouldn’t fail the way the one in Schutz did.

Write the letter in 300 to 450 words, and check every statement it makes about a rule or the arbitration program against its source in Resources. Then draft the notice of charging lien for filing in the circuit court for Volusia County in Coastal Keel Marine, Inc. v. Dunlin Dock & Seawall, LLC. Leave the case number blank for Marcy Cole to fill in. Read Sinclair, Daniel Mones, Dowda & Fields, and Schutz first. Decide from those opinions what your notice must say, and on whom it must be served, for the lien to reach the money when the case ends. Run the Lien Notice Stress Test on your draft with the text of Schutz, and check each objection it raises against the opinion itself.

Part 5: Post Your Deliverables

Create one new discussion thread with two things. First, your invoice: the invoice workbook with its Prebill, Invoice, and Payment sheets filled in, and your cover email. Second, your collection file: the letter to Coastal Keel’s president and the notice of charging lien.

Part 6: Share Chat Link

Include one AI chat link with a 1–2 sentence explanation of what the conversation shows and why you chose to share it.

Write-Down Sparring Partner

A model asked to judge your decision tends to agree with it, so this one is assigned the other side, as a devil’s advocate. Holding it to what you paste keeps its arguments tied to the terms instead of to billing rules it might invent.

Client’s Eye Reader

Casting the model as the client who pays the bill is audience simulation, and it surfaces what an insider stops noticing. The ban on rewriting keeps the fixes, and the judgment behind them, yours.

Trust Routing Checker

The model draws out your reasoning one question at a time instead of supplying its own, which is Socratic questioning held to a closed set of sources. Each verdict it reaches must come with the sentence it rests on, so you can check its reading of the rule against the rule itself.

Lien Notice Stress Test

Opposing counsel looks for the gap, so putting the model in that seat over a pasted opinion is red-teaming with the source in hand. Tying each objection to a quoted sentence gives you something to verify, since a model can describe a holding the court never made.