Washington, DC— Today the nation's first comprehensive study of the out-of-court programs that resolve lawyer-client fee disputes ranked Kansas' fee arbitration system 37th in the nation and issued the state's program a D-Minus grade. To spur reform of these important but under-utilized forums, legal consumer watchdog group HALT - An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform released its 2007 Fee Arbitration Report Card, analyzing programs in all 50 states and D.C.

"The most pervasive complaint about lawyers is that their fees are too high for the work done," stated HALT Senior Counsel Suzanne M. Blonder. "The Kansas Bar Association has a program in place that's meant to resolve these kinds of everyday disputes between clients and attorneys."

While HALT commended the bar's online resources about fee arbitration, the watchdog group faulted Kansas' program for its anti-consumer policies. Notably, state rules prohibit clients from publicly disclosing information about their fee disputes with attorneys as well as any information about the outcome of an arbitration hearing. In addition, the bar allows attorneys to refuse a client's request to resolve a fee dispute through arbitration.

The Bar Association also does not use any formal methods to enforce arbitration awards against attorneys, whereas bar associations in other states automatically suspend lawyers if they unreasonably delay compliance with an arbitrator's decision. "Even the best fee arbitration system is worthless if it does not provide clients with a mechanism for obtaining a refund when a panel has found that a lawyer inflated a bill," explained Blonder.

The top five states - D.C., Maine, New Jersey, New York and California - scored no higher than a B average on the Report Card. Three states - New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia - flunked. Another eight received Incompletes because they do not offer statewide systems to settle lawyer-client fee disputes.

"In an era of skyrocketing lawyer fees, we hope state officials will reform the fee arbitration program so that more Kansans can take advantage of this valuable service," stated Blonder.