If you are new to the prospect of dealing with legal problems, then you will no doubt be taken aback at the large sums of money that you can be charged by a lawyer for a relatively simple thing. What seemed to only take a few hours can cost you hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars! Getting involved with legal people comes with the caveat that you better be prepared financially, because the sums of money that you will be paying out are pretty spectacular the vast majority of the time. So, why do lawyers charge such massive legal fees?
Cases can cost you upwards of $200/hour, and if you are going through a tough case this can become excessive in cost. If you are dealing with a settlement, a lawyer could want as much as 40% of the settlement for doing all of the work – this can make things hard for normal people to get a legal consult that they can trust and rely upon to get the job done and help them out with the problem that they are facing. The problem is, because lawyers cost so much, most people don’t even believe in the cheaper ones!
It’s become so common for a lawyer to charge massive sums of money that it’s almost impossible now for someone to be able to fully understand just what they are being offered in terms of assistance financially – are you getting value? Could you have gone elsewhere and saved some money?
This is at the heart of the issue of lawyers – are they really looking to help you out and need to be covered for the hard work? Or are they just creating a price based on the fact you need one to deal with a potentially serious problem in life?
Many lawyers will state that the fees they are requesting cover the following;
· Staffing and overheads – this is something you might not have considered at first, but is a key part of getting the solution right. You need to pay for their secretary, their receptionist, their office. Whilst you aren’t directly billed for that, these are excessive costs to the lawyer so they’ll make sure it’s covered – and then some – by the clients that they hire. Anything needed to get the law firm in working order to deal with your case will be seen as a justifiable reason for putting up prices
· Research – legal tools are needed to access the case and all of the various options open to you. Additionally, they need to use research tools to look at previous cases with similar scenarios to try and create some kind of precedent – this is usually done through he Westlaw and Findlaw programs, which are costly to the lawyer; again, you’ll cover the fee for this
· Writing – The actual writing cost to get the document made up to lay everything out to you is charged in there, as well. They need to create a solid plan, and this costs significant amounts of money!
As you can see, dealing with a lawyer can be broken down into three main areas – the problem is working out whether or not you feel justified in paying those prices, or whether you would like to go elsewhere instead.
Cases can cost you upwards of $200/hour, and if you are going through a tough case this can become excessive in cost. If you are dealing with a settlement, a lawyer could want as much as 40% of the settlement for doing all of the work – this can make things hard for normal people to get a legal consult that they can trust and rely upon to get the job done and help them out with the problem that they are facing. The problem is, because lawyers cost so much, most people don’t even believe in the cheaper ones!
It’s become so common for a lawyer to charge massive sums of money that it’s almost impossible now for someone to be able to fully understand just what they are being offered in terms of assistance financially – are you getting value? Could you have gone elsewhere and saved some money?
This is at the heart of the issue of lawyers – are they really looking to help you out and need to be covered for the hard work? Or are they just creating a price based on the fact you need one to deal with a potentially serious problem in life?
Many lawyers will state that the fees they are requesting cover the following;
· Staffing and overheads – this is something you might not have considered at first, but is a key part of getting the solution right. You need to pay for their secretary, their receptionist, their office. Whilst you aren’t directly billed for that, these are excessive costs to the lawyer so they’ll make sure it’s covered – and then some – by the clients that they hire. Anything needed to get the law firm in working order to deal with your case will be seen as a justifiable reason for putting up prices
· Research – legal tools are needed to access the case and all of the various options open to you. Additionally, they need to use research tools to look at previous cases with similar scenarios to try and create some kind of precedent – this is usually done through he Westlaw and Findlaw programs, which are costly to the lawyer; again, you’ll cover the fee for this
· Writing – The actual writing cost to get the document made up to lay everything out to you is charged in there, as well. They need to create a solid plan, and this costs significant amounts of money!
As you can see, dealing with a lawyer can be broken down into three main areas – the problem is working out whether or not you feel justified in paying those prices, or whether you would like to go elsewhere instead.