Washington, DC— Today the nation's first comprehensive study of the out-of-court programs that resolve lawyer-client fee disputes ranked Mississippi's fee arbitration system 31st in the nation and issued the state's system a D 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. "Mississippi has a program that's meant to help clients and lawyers resolve everyday fee disputes, but unfortunately the state's rules allow lawyers to reject a client's request to settle the conflict through arbitration - forcing many clients to take their cases to court, which can be time-consuming and costly."

The state received low marks for its reliance on lawyers to settle fee disputes. Mississippi is one of the only states in the nation that prohibits non-lawyers from serving on arbitration panels. "By refusing input from non-lawyers, Mississippi adds to the public perception that fee arbitration programs are of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the lawyers," explained Blonder.

HALT also faulted the Mississippi State Bar for failing to use formal methods to enforce arbitration awards against attorneys; 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 Mississippi officials will reform the state's fee arbitration program because all Americans should be able to challenge a lawyer's bill in a low-cost, efficient forum," stated Blonder.