Attention lawyers: Keep good billing records. You'll hate yourself in the morning if you don't.

This lesson comes Friday courtesy of the case now called Norden v. Clough. Dr. Beth Norden previously won a Rehabilitation Act case against the Smithsonian Institution, along with an $800,000 settlement. She asked for an additional $1.6 million in attorneys fees. But because her attorneys didn't keep records of their hours -- an amazing failure, when you think about it -- U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer on Friday said  she could only award $320,000 in attorneys fees.

That's a lot of money her Lanhan, Maryland-based attorneys potentially left on the table.

The backstory is even more painful. Dr. Norden, who holds a Ph.D. in entomology, had worked for the Smithsonian for a number of years. She was great at her work, being awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to perform research in Sri Lanka.

Then, in 2000, Dr. Norden contracted dengue hemorraghic fever while working for the Smithsonian in Brazil. As Judge Collyer noted earlier:

"The (disease) caused a near-fatal level of hemorrhage that required approximately three weeks of
hospitalization. The infection affected all of Dr. Norden’s organ systems in different ways: she suffered neurological damage, including brain trauma; an impaired immune system; and a damaged circulatory system in the form of an increased tendency for her capillaries to bleed. After leaving the hospital, Dr. Norden spent months in intense pain and encephalitic confusion, unable even to read a newspaper competently."

Eventually, Dr. Norden was able to return to work for a time, but she says she was not treated properly by the Smithsonian. She filed her lawsuit in 2005, won it in 2007 -- and now, she has her final, frustrating answer on attorneys fees. As Judge Collyer noted:

"Given counsel’s loose record-keeping practices, the Court cannot begin to evaluate the reasonableness of the attorney time expended."