Five Reasons We Charge What We Do

First off, it’s not easy becoming a lawyer. On top of that, there are regulations in place that require the use of lawyers to handle legal issues.  In other words, lawyers can charge more simply because they are lawyers.  If you try to practice law in a state where you are not a licensed attorney, you are engaging in the unauthorized practice of law and you can be charged with a crime, fined, and punished accordingly.  It’s like a doctor, really–you wouldn’t try to do your own surgery, or go to the guy down the street for medical prescriptions, so why would you try to handle your own case or ask a friend of a friend’s paralegal mom for legal help?

Ultimately, law firms and lawyers can charge more because consumers are afraid and don’t educate themselves, though, as Above the Law states again here.  Lawyers know the law, and understand the law, and can generally avoid the most critical errors.  But consumers don’t know the law, don’t understand the law, and if they make a critical error, there’s not a lot to be done when they screw it up.

If clients are educated, they will dig in and ask important questions to be sure that they are paying for the actual important work and not mindless paper-pushing. If consumers know the difference between quality legal advice and just busy work, then they can make intelligent decisions about when to pay higher fees and when to go shopping for a cheaper lawyer.  But, for clients it’s frankly easier to just throw money at the problem expecting to get a better lawyer than it is to take the risk of finding low-cost solutions to their legal problems.

It’s not too expensive to hire just any lawyer. But it can be expensive to hire a great, experienced lawyer, who will dedicate his/her personal attention to your case.

1. 1. Our fee structure can vary from flat-rate, to hourly with a retainer, to hourly without a retainer.  We assess a case to determine how much legal research is involved, how much drafting is involved, and how much active negotiation with the opposing party is involved.  These three things generally cost more because they demand the most time.  If there is a lot of these three things involved in your case, then the time-suck factor comes into play and hourly with a retainer is likely to be the quoted rate.
   2. Our fees can go up when we go to Court. Going to Court to represent you involves making representations to the Judge, the Court staff, the other lawyers, the witnesses, and the jury, even.  This is our credibility; this is our livelihood. We have to prepare legal arguments and analyze the facts of your case extensively to go to Court
   3. Our fees are reflect that of an experienced attorney.  All of our attorneys have been practicing for a long time.  We charge more (but not above average) because we have spent years becoming fluent in the areas of law in which we practice. We have taken continuing education courses to stay on top of the issues as they evolve. This is not easy to do, and in this case–you are paying more to get more.  An experienced attorney can ask for a higher rate than a first year associate, and they should. We can pick up a criminal or family case with little to no extra research because we’ve handled them before, whereas a newer attorney will have to do tons of research to educate themselves just to get to the baseline where we start.
   4. Our fees are lower than other “prestigious” lawyers.  We are also a smaller firm, unlike the big law firms with over 50 people. We also run a virtual law office, meaning you have access to us nearly 100% of the time via email, phone and text. And we run our firm nearly paperless. We can afford to be cheaper because we run a streamlined practice on a budget.
   5. Mostly, we charge what we do so that we can tell a client what this lawyer on Lawyerist.com tells his clients, “Okay, you don’t have to worry about this any more. Your problems are now my problems.”  We will be there every step of the way. We will tell you what we should worry about and what we shouldn’t. We’ll keep to ourselves that your case is causing us to lose sleep because we don’t want to worry you. We manage the entire case for you. After going through legal issues, sometimes that is like managing your entire LIFE for you.  And We’re more than happy to do it. We would literally walk 1,000 miles to fall down at your door… we are that dedicated to our clients.  We went to law school to help people, after all.