Monday WTF Files: The Actress and the Investigator

In case you missed the 'news', Kelly Rutherford (her real name), of Gossip Girl fame* is being sued by private investigator Edward Banach (presumably also his real name) over an unpaid bill for services rendered during her messy divorce case.

According to Rutherford, Banach was hired to prove her ex did not properly secure the pool and play areas of his home, therefore endangering their son.

Sounds simple enough, right?

So how did the investigator get to bill for $86,249.85? For less than 2 months work?

Let's look at that figure again.

$86,249.85

Granted, I'm no mathematician, but at the reported rate $65.00 per hour, Banach had to put in around 1327 hours of billable time on this baby. Hell, let's be generous, and say Banach put in 1000 hours of work ($65,000 billable time) and ran up $21,249.85 in expenses.

You know, a couple of lunches on Rodeo Drive or whatever.

So, Banach is putting in these 125-hour weeks (or almost 18 hours a day, every day) to do exactly what? That's not a rhetorical question, I really would like to know because, from my experience, this job certainly wasn't one that should have taken 1000-odd (or even 100-odd) hours to complete.

My next question is how the hell do I get a client like this? Only one that actually pays the ridiculous bill, naturally.

Thanks to PI Newswire (@CanadianPI on Twitter) for alerting me to this story.

And, yes, I'm quite aware it's not a Monday.

* I have to admit that I had to Google her name as I've never heard of Rutherford before this and life is too short to watch crappy TV. Hell, it's not even about a PI, so why would you?