Many lawyers will have heard the joke about the solicitor who dies and finds himself at the pearly gates. He contests his death, but St Peter intones, 'It was your time'. 'But I'm only 39,' says the lawyer. 'Funny,' says St Peter. 'According to your timesheets, you're 142.' Well, news reaches us of a real lawyer who has paid $1.2 million to settle allegations - without accepting liability - that he billed a client for up to 94 hours in a single day. The Connecticut Law Tribune reports the federal government's claim that on that day in 2000, Timothy Spayne - who practised with several non-lawyers in his office - supposedly reviewed 113 files, made and received 91 phone calls and wrote 72 letters (some City lawyers may not think this an untypical day). Over a two-year period, he was alleged to have charged for more than 24 hours of work in a single day an impressive 135 times. In one case outlined by federal attorneys, he was alleged to have opened three separate files for a worker's injuries to his left knee, right knee, and hands and arms, preparing three letters and three file memos and billing an hour's conference time to each file, even though he was said not to have spent three hours with the client. Mr Spayne's lawyer told the Tribune that it made financial sense to settle the claims, because of the cost of defence, adding that criminal charges against his client had been stayed.