Lynda ArtesaniLegal Accountant and Data Migration Specialist at The Proper Trust

A Penny Costing Thousands - Legal Compliance Gone Wild

5 Aug 2025 · 0 min

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0:26

In this brief anecdote, the speaker recounts a personal‑injury law case where a settlement check contained a one‑cent error after the client’s attorney died. The error required the firm to return the penny to the client, but because the client never cashed the check and the attorney was deceased, the matter was escalated to the Attorney Regulation Council. The speaker highlights the disproportionate amount of time, effort, and money spent on resolving a trivial accounting mistake, using the story to criticize the legal industry’s regulatory compliance processes as overly burdensome and inefficient.

I just had a client who passed away and there was 1 penny on a check that they had to write, which was an error in the settlement agreement, personal injury firm. And it was an error in the settlement agreement. And I told them, you've got to give that penny back to your client. And of course, the client never cashed the check. No. The attorney has passed away. And so, we had to go through Attorney Regulation Council to deal with a penny. I mean, how much money was spent on that 1 penny? But we have to do that.