Various good billing and collecting tips

There's a good series of postings at The Practice regarding client expenses, billing clients, and collecting money.

I agree with the post regarding charging clients for expenses. I do not charge for faxing, copying, mailing, ect. These are the costs of doing business and it's chincy to charge someone $.60 or something for a letter...get real! (I have worked at a firm that did charge for those items.)

On the billing issue, he suggests calling overdue clients personally. I agree for one shot. After that I go to my office manager and then collection agency quickly. I worry about my representation being impacted if I start to have ill will for a particular client. Obviously if they don't pay we'll get out of the case but I can't not represent them to the best of my ability simply due to my negative feelings because of an unpaid bill.

Last, I need to start keeping check copies for future collections.