Lawyer’s fee
Sooner or later, the moment comes when a client chooses a lawyer who meets all their criteria (reputation, recommendations from acquaintances, a list of successful cases, inner conviction).
Perhaps one of the main concerns for all clients when signing a contract is the cost of the lawyer’s services (fees) and the payment options available.
A good anecdote comes to mind:
Upon the client’s enthusiastic exclamation, “I just don’t know how to thank you, Mr. Lawyer!”
The lawyer, shrugging his shoulders, quietly replied, “Ever since the Phoenicians invented money, it’s not a problem.”
So, the price of a lawyer’s services is the amount of their fee. In a market economy, this is formed according to market laws and is generally contractual, based on supply and demand.
The fee is influenced by certain objective and subjective factors, such as the ratio of supply and demand, competition, the purchasing power of the population in the region, the volume and complexity of the work, the lawyer’s experience, personal PR in the media, and ratings in specialised legal publications.
Other factors influencing the fee include office rent, salaries of assistants, the purchase of office supplies, office equipment maintenance, and so on.
Let’s highlight the main types of lawyer fee payments established by global practice:
Fixed Fee
In this case, the client pays the lawyer for defence in a specifically defined case, and this amount does not change regardless of how much time the lawyer spends on resolving it.
For example, the parties agree that for defence at the pre-trial investigation stage, from the moment of taking the case until the materials are sent to court or a verdict is issued, the lawyer’s fee will be N-amount $.
This fee is formed based on the volume of materials and the complexity of the case, the time required to resolve it, the lawyer’s experience and qualifications, the urgency of the work, and other circumstances.
Hourly Fee
The lawyer quotes the client a specific amount per hour of their work, for example, $100/hour. Every action they take, such as visiting an investigator, prosecutor, or court, writing procedural documents, providing consultations, and the time spent on them, is recorded in a special document. This document is typically called “billing” (an automated system for accounting provided services, their pricing, and issuing invoices for payment).
The parties agree on the procedure for informing about the worked hours and payment for services:
- as soon as the lawyer works 5 or 10 hours, they send the client a billing document, clearly indicating the list of services provided and the time spent on them
- at the end of each month, the lawyer provides the client with a report on the services provided and the number of hours worked
By the way, most lawyers agree on a deposit amount. This is to minimise the risk of the client refusing to pay for the legal services provided.
Monthly Fixed Fee
This type of payment also exists in the legal profession. In other words, it is a subscription service.
In this case, the parties agree that the monthly payment for the lawyer’s services will be a certain amount, directly dependent on the complexity of the case, the time, or a certain volume of procedural actions needed to resolve it.
Payment for Each Procedural Action
With this type of payment, the lawyer receives a specific fee for each procedural action they participate in or for each document they prepare, for example: presence during interrogation, participation in a court session, going to the scene of an accident, preparation of various types of procedural documents (applications, complaints, motions).
It should be remembered that the lawyer’s fee is based on the actual time spent working on the case, not the final result. The subject of the contract between the lawyer and the client is the provision of professional legal assistance, not the final result (for example, a positive court decision in the case).
However, this rule does not exclude the possibility of including in the contract, as an incentive, an additional fee to the lawyer (the so-called “success fee”).
Thus, the final decision on the type of payment for a lawyer’s services remains with the client, who should understand that resolving each case requires an individual approach.