We are inundated with subpoenas in divorce cases to reproduce account histories. Is it acceptable to charge for this research? In most cases the customers themselves could provide this information. If there were a charge for the research perhaps it would incent them to turn it over to the opposing parties attorney and keep the bank out of the divorce.

It is perfectly acceptable to charge a fee. Make sure you have this fee in your schedule of fees and charges used for disclosure. If so, call the attorney who subpoened the records and tell him its X bucks per hour, so much per copy, and when you have the records they can come down with a check and pick them up.

You can also submit a bill to the court.

Unfortunately, in many cases the parties are not speaking to each other and the party requesting records, is not the one in posession of the old bank statements and cancelled checks.

We charge for research and copying expenses in these situations.

In one instance we sent the bill and recieved a letter back from the attorney for our customer stating that OUR charges were outrageous and they would only be paying half. At $10 an hour, I thought it was a deal compared to what the attorney was charging!

Jennifer, thanks for the laugh Can't you just visualize it; the lawyer is ranting and raving to the client (our mutual customer) about how "outrageous" our fees are and on.... AND the customer is so happy that this wonderful person is on his/her side-----do they see the irony of it when they get the lawyer's bill??

In situations where we are going to have a gargantuan job responding to the subpoena and are worried about payment, we seek an agreement from the party seeking the records and, if none is forthcoming, seek a protective order from the court.