Back to collectionThe Disputed Legal Bills Double
The law firm's retainer had run out the night before, and the narrator still had not answered the tentative settlement email. He sorted the legal invoices issued since July into three columns: paid, outstanding, and disputed. The bills had become a list that could be discussed item by item, but sorting them had added nothing to the balance.
A creative chronicle combining project history with imagined scenes. Story events are not verification of network activity.
The law firm's retainer had run out the night before, and the narrator still had not answered the tentative settlement email. Today he needed to turn the vague phrase 'we cannot pay' into figures he could check, so he would know what to discuss with the firm.
He sorted the legal invoices issued since July into three columns: paid, outstanding, and disputed. The disputed column was twice as long as it had been the previous month. Rather than simply remove charges he questioned, he marked the work associated with each invoice and what needed an explanation from the firm.
The bills had become a list that could be discussed item by item, but sorting them had added nothing to the balance. His next step was to clarify the disputed charges and payment priorities, then decide which work current funds could support. The email from the previous night was still unanswered.