Washington, DC— Today the nation's first comprehensive study of the out-of-court programs that resolve lawyer-client fee disputes ranked North Carolina's fee arbitration system 34th 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. "Unfortunately, North Carolina is one of the few states in the country that fails to offer a program for arbitrating those kinds of everyday fee disputes."

HALT's Report Card found that the North Carolina bar only provides resources for mediation, a process in which a trained facilitator does not issue a ruling but tries to guide the parties toward a possible resolution. Unlike arbitration, mediation is non-binding and is not an effective tool when parties cannot agree. "If the client and lawyer cannot settle the dispute themselves, they have no choice but to go to court, which can be time-consuming and sometimes even cost-prohibitive for the average legal consumer," explained Blonder.

North Carolina's fee dispute resolution program also received low marks for its reliance on lawyers to help work through disputes between lawyers and clients. Unlike most states, non-lawyers are not permitted to serve as mediators. "Already frustrated with the legal profession, consumers often tell us that they do not wish to utilize a fee dispute resolution program that's managed and controlled entirely by lawyers," stated Blonder.

HALT's Report Card graded states in six categories: (1) whether lawyers must participate in arbitration at a client's request; (2) the ease of initiating arbitration; (3) the amount of publicity of the state's fee arbitration system; (4) the program's reliance on non-lawyer arbitrators; (5) whether non-binding mediation is offered as an alternative to arbitration; and (6) how the system enforces arbitration awards.

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.