If you retain a Maryland attorney on an hourly basis and the attorney does not submit invoices to you on a regular basis, there is a good chance that your attorney is attempting to conceal from you his or her excessive billing. At the very least, you are being deprived of the critical information as to whether the attorney is litigating the case within your budget.
In Maryland, most retainer agreements expressly provide that the attorney or law firm will submit monthly invoices. Even if this language does not appear in the retainer agreement, the Maryland attorney or law firm still has a professional duty to submit regular invoices in order to comply with the ethical obligation “to keep the client reasonably informed of the status of his case. See the Maryland Lawyers’ Rules of Professional Conduct at Maryland Rule 19-301.4; and Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland v. Roth, 428 Md. 50, 74 (2012) (concluding that an attorney violated Md. Rule 19-301.14(a)(2) regarding communications with clients by failing to provide the clients with monthly billing statements).
