A Reappraisal
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Pages | 16 |
DEPARTMENT | THE SIDEBAR
BY RONALD M. SANDGRUND
Almost 20 years ago, when I was 45, I wrote an essay called "The Audit" for the Denver Bar Association's The Docket magazine.[1] It concerned events that occurred during my legal practice more than 30 years ago, when I was 35. Recently, I stumbled across the essay, reread it, and wondered if my view of those events (thinly fictionalized) had changed after all this time. The essay is reprinted below, and after it concludes, my 65-year-old self looks back.
"The Audit"
It was not a good sign that the auditor the Very Sound Fidelity & Guaranty Insurance Company (VSF&G) sent to examine three years of invoices was named "Charity." I still have no idea what criteria she used to find that our law firm had "overcharged" VSF&G $32,341 out of over $3.5 million in billings. I suspect it was akin to the coverage defense some insurance companies fall back on when their policy language fails them, the "sincere desire not to have to pay" exclusion. When combined with the "we have more money than God" gambit and the "we can litigate this for an eternity" maneuver, it takes a stubborn policyholder to weather such a perfect storm.
Although Charity labored in our office for several weeks, she was rarely spotted emerging from behind the stacks of "dead files" heaped on and around her desk. Yet, Charity was like a modern-day medium, able to make those dead files speak. And the Sphinx itself could not conjure up more confounding riddles.
"What was this $23.75 charge for?" she whispered. I strained to hear the question, then strained to read the faded entry: "November 4, 1992. $23.75. Receive, read and analyze letter from Plaintiff's counsel." Seemed rather self-evident to me. "Well, Charity, it appears that on the fourth day of November, Nineteen Ninety-Two, I got a letter from Plaintiff's counsel in the mail, read it, and analyzed whether any sort of response was required." "Why did it take you 15 minutes to read this letter? It is only a paragraph long," she said nudging the file toward me. The letter said, in its entirety: "Dear Mr. Sandgrund: I would like to schedule a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of VSF&G. Please make the necessary corporate representatives available at my office on November 20, 1992."
Although Charity labored in our office for several weeks, she was rarely spotted emerging from behind the stacks of "dead files" heaped on and around her desk. Yet, Charity was like...
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