When
you pay legal fees, you are paying for expertise, knowledge and experience
that are essential to assist you in your problem or to protect you,
your business and your assets. Fees frequently are calculated on a time
basis (hourly rate) but you actually are paying for work and expertise,
not "time." Time is used merely as a measure. Often flat rates,
percentages or "not-to-exceed" limits can be arranged depending
on the nature of the matter.
Legal advice, whether given in meetings with the client, in written
form (i.e. faxes, letters and memoranda) or during telephone conversations,
is considered a billable service. To help keep costs down, you, as the
client, are encouraged to do more for yourself to save on lawyer's
time. Even where tasks can be assigned to younger lawyers and legal
assistants, there is a benefit as well as a cost savings if the client
participates in the work and provides the information and assistance
requested by the lawyer.
In addition to fees for professional services, law firms charge the
client for out-of-pocket expenses (i.e. disbursements) incurred on the
client's behalf. Such disbursements usually include document reproduction
services, faxes, postage, filing fees, court reporters, long distance
telephone charges, on-line database research, process servers and so
forth. Please remember that your lawyer is not a bank. When your lawyer
pays these out-of-pocket costs in connection with representing you,
such payment is done as a courtesy to the client. If the client had
to pay every out-of-pocket cost as it is incurred, there could be a
substantial delay in handling the client's matter while waiting for
the payment to be made. When the lawyer advances payment of such disbursements,
it is like giving an interest free loan to the client. Those costs would
not have been incurred but for your matter.
To enable the law firm to render legal services most efficiently, and
to reduce the time and expense of billing reminders and collection,
it is expected that the client will have paid a retainer for legal fees
and disbursements before any work on your matter begins. Depending on
the nature of the matter and the fee agreement reached between lawyer
and client, additional retainer amounts may be required to be paid from
time to time.
While legal fees sometimes seem costly, please remember that the lawyer's
time, effort, emotions, reputation and livelihood are involved. Your
lawyer does not receive a paycheck and is dependent on you and other
clients to feed himself and his family. If you are not going to pay
your fees, please do not take the lawyer's time away from working for
other clients who will. Some people resent having to pay for services
they need (e.g.., legal, medical) rather than those they enjoy (e.g..,
theater tickets, restaurants, etc.). People also seem more willing to
pay their doctors, dentists and plumbers, even though lawyers are the
only ones who ever get money back for them. Nevertheless, your lawyer
has the same right to be paid for his services as anyone else.
There also is an inverse relationship to time and satisfaction. The
longer it takes a client to pay the bill, the quicker the client forgets
why he or she retained the lawyer in the first place. We, therefore,
encourage prompt payment by offering discounts for all invoices paid
in full within 15 days. If you prefer, payment arrangements that will
fit into your budget also may be worked out.
I hope this information sheet clarifies any questions you may have about
our billing procedures. Your fee for your individual case or matter
will be discussed with you and confirmed in writing if you decide to
use our firm. We are always here for questions and are happy to discuss
any concerns about your bill at any time.
