In any field of analysis, a professional methodology is always preferred to an ad hoc personal or solo methodology.  But in legal fee analysis, each attorney fee expert and legal bill auditor have their own individual or solo methodology for analyzing attorney fees and legal billing entries. 

Even if qualified, no two attorney fee experts or legal bill auditors follow the same process or methodology when reviewing attorney fees for reasonableness.  In fact, some attorney fee experts and legal bill auditors vary their methodology depending on the client (i.e. fee-seeking or fee-challenging).  This has resulted in one-sided fee experts and legal bill auditors.

“The challenge for legal fee analysis is to move beyond the personal ad hoc methodologies.  At NALFA, we're interested in developing some general methodology principles for analyzing reasonable attorney fees.  This would ensure reliability in the results, regardless of client,” said Terry Jesse, Executive Director of NALFA.