The Wall Street Journal reports today that there is an Army plan underfoot that could allow Halliburton to keep all its funds from disputed bills for work done in Iraq since the war began. Apparently, the Army has acknowledged that Halliburton might never be able to properly account for many of its expenses. Instead of disallowing them, the Army has hired a consulting firm to estimate what Halliburton's work "should have cost." This estimate will be used in later settlement negotiations under which the Pentagon could drop many of its claims against Halliburton.
The Army's position appears to be that hiring a consultant was the only way to resolve the dispute. The Journal quotes a General in the Army as saying that if the "supporting documentation just does not exist" we have to resolve the problem somehow. He went on to state that it would be "totally inappropriate and unfair of us to disallow all costs when, in the fog of contingency" Halliburton didn't obtain proper documentation.
The article goes on to state that so far Halliburton has billed about $12 billion in Iraq -- of which nearly $3 billion remains in dispute. The Journal reports that $650 million is "questionable" and $2 billion is "unsupported."
Halliburton, of course, says they haven't over billed the government "one nickel."
Yeah, right.
Let's put this into terms that are more easily understood by most folks. Let's say that I do legal work for a client and bill him $12 thousand dollars. The client looks closely at my detailed bill, and says to me that he feels that I overcharged him $650 and that I don't seem to have any records or time that supports another $2 thousand.
How do we resolve the dispute (besides the client reporting me to the Board of Bar Overseers)? Apparently what should happen next is that the client needs to hire a consulting firm to estimate what my legal services "should have cost." After that is done, the client and I can use that figure for negotiation in the hope that he'll drop many of his claims about my bill being improper in any way.
I don't know about you, but I've been practicing law nearly 25 years and I haven't come across a client like that yet. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal.
In the meantime, I'll continue to do work for this client and he'll continue to pay my bills in full, pending later negotiation. If he has any more questions, I'll just tell him that I can't document parts of my bill because they were done "in the fog of contingency."
Hmmm ... I wonder if Halliburton needs any legal work?
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