Ethics Question of the Week: Can I charge a client for making copies?
Q. Can I charge a client for services such as making copies?
A. IRPC 1.5 addresses fees and expenses. Comment [1] states that “lawyer may seek reimbursement for the cost of services performed in-house, such as copying, or for other expenses incurred in-house, such as telephone charges, either by charging a reasonable amount to which the client has agreed in advance or by charging an amount that reasonably reflects the cost incurred by the lawyer.” 1.5(b) also notes that fees should be communicated to the client before representation. See the full text of 1.5 for further explanation.
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Disclaimer. These questions are representative of calls received on the ISBA’s ethics hotline. The information provided below is meant as an educational tool to highlight potentially applicable Illinois RPC or other ethics resources that might help the lawyer answer the question posed. The information provided isn’t legal advice. Because every situation is different, often complex, and the law is constantly evolving, you shouldn’t rely upon this general information without conducting your own research.
Member Comments (2)
It may be ethical, but it sure doesn't show much business sense. Most clients think routine copies (not copying briefs, or big jobs like that) are part of everyone's office expenses, and if you're nickel and diming your clients for a handful of copies you aren't going to have happy clients, and then there's the time and resources spent keeping track and billing. Is it really worth it?
part of the fee charged is to cover office overhead. routine copying is office overhead. for large copying situations, such as exhibit books, voluminous discovery, briefs, etc., send the material to a copy service. that charge is a cost to pass on the the client.
to charge for long distance calls, copies, postage, just looks bad in my opinion. it is ethical but it looks bad.