My fee agreement says I don’t charge for normal overhead. That means that I don’t charge for “in-house” copying, scanning, faxing or telephone calls. I also don’t charge for normal postage. But I do charge for things like FedEx, Kinko’s copying/scanning etc. I also charge for long-distance and international calls.

Many lawyers, though, do charge for these things. Why? Personally I think it’s because they don’t calculate their overhead correctly. Theoretically, overhead should cover all these things. But some lawyers (maybe to keep their hourly rates looking low) bill these things separately. Of course, others just do it to run up the bill. I don’t.