Incident to their final account, the executors of the estate of Annie Laurie Aitken asked the court to reconsider longstanding principles regarding the compensation and disbursements of attorneys. Specifically, the attorneys contended that certain expenses, such as photocopying and word processing, should be reimbursed from the estate as "reasonable disbursements." Historically, New York courts have disallowed similar expenditures, considering them simply a part of office "overhead."
The court rules that, in the future, when counsel seeks to charge various supportive services as disbursements, the court will consider them if a managerial member of the law firm affirms in writing that salaries and related costs of such services were not taken into account in computing the billing rates and that it is the normal practice of the firm to bill clients separately for such disbursements. According to the court, this new rule is warranted by changes in technology and by the increased use of non-attorneys to perform many law office services. The court also observes that the cost of necessary and appropriate computerized legal research should be treated as a disbursement because such research "is highly economical and can save countless hours of lawyer time."
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