Billing a lawyer for disbursement from a settlement

[Stephen P. Shockley]

Hi,

I did an inspection recently and agreed to let payment come from the settlement closing because it was for someone I know and agreed to this as a favor.

Anyhow, this may sound like a stupid question, but does anyone have an example of how they typically set up the invoice to send to a law firm to make sure they collect a check from the settlement?


Please advise,

Steve

[James H. Bushart]

Your friend will have to be the one to provide a letter to his lawyer authorizing him to pay you from the settlement...and send a copy to you. Billing the attorney will not guarantee you a payment in return.

[Stephen P. Shockley]

James,

Thanks. She has already done that much, because I got an E-mail from her this afternoon requesting that I go ahead and send in the invoice and gave me the attorney's number to call to get their mailing address and saying they were looking for my invoice. I'm basically looking to see how the typical invoice looks. A sample of what I've put together is below (with ficticious names of course):

BILL TO:
Name: Patrick E. Smith representing Sandra Doe
Company Name: Smith & Jones, P.A.
Street Address/PO Box: PO Box 1234
City, ST ZIP Code: Anytown, DE 19999
Phone: 302-123-4567 (Work)


Does this appear to be the correct way to send the Bill to the attorney's office?

[Bruce A. King]

On your letter head. No need to "bill to the attorney", he will pay all invoices that are valid if the invoice is sent in a timely manner. When the client has already paid for an inspection, many attorneys are wanting a receipt for their records.


Home Inspection Invoice


Client name:

Property Address:

Inspection Date:

Real Estate Agent name:

Closing attorney name:

Fee as per inspection agreement: $

Standard additional fee for payment at closing:

Total Due: $

[James E. Braun, CMI]

A standard invoice. We prepared to wait awhile to receive payment.

[Stephen P. Shockley]

Bruce,

That's exactly what I was looking. I hadn't thought of putting the realtor's name on there before, so thanks again.

Regards,

Steve