FLAT FEES
FLAT FEES
Flat Fees are fees that are set at a stated dollar amount. In other words, the lawyer and the client know in advance of the rendition of legal services what the fee will be. For example, the lawyer and client agree in advance that the lawyer will charge $500 to handle the client’s case. Then regardless of what happens $500 will be the fee. The attraction for the client, of course, is that the client knows at the very beginning of his or her case what the fee will be regardless of what happens.
A big problem that lawyers face is that, except for relatively simple highly predictable matters, setting flat fees is difficult, if not impossible, especially in contested litigation matters. The same can be said for many business, real estate and other matters. Moreover, experience tells many lawyers that: (1.) almost all situations have one or two unique aspects that can cause the time and expense associated with handling a case to fluctuate significantly for the lawyer; and (2) in both business and litigation (trial) matters there are usually 2 or 3 sides to the story, which again causes the lawyer’s time involvement and his expense to fluctuate.
Our solution is the Protected Flat Fee Program. See below.
PROTECTED FLAT FEE PROGRAM
For clients who want Flat Fee protection here’s what we do.
- We set the estimated flat fee. We do this in writing, usually in a fee agreement signed by the client.
- As part of the process of estimating the flat fee we estimate the time it will take to resolve the legal matter to its conclusion. This estimated time is also set forth in the fee agreement. (We call this the Estimated Time to Complete or ETC)
- In the fee agreement, we then add a certain safety cushion for the client. This is to cover a certain amount of time that may become necessary for the lawyer to handle unexpected matters or those matters which take longer than expected. (We call this safety cushion time “Free Legal Time” or FLT). The FLT normally is normally ranges between one quarter to one half of the ETC total hours but may be more or less in simpler or highly complex matters. In any event we generally structure the FLT to give the client considerable assurance that the flat fee we estimated up front will actually be the final fee that the client ends up paying after the case is over.
In essence, the estimated flat fee set under the Protected Flat Fee Program is what the client actually ends up paying. This is because the “Free Legal Time” or FLT that we set out in writing with the client normally ranges between one quarter to one half of the ETC total hours but may be more or less in simpler or highly complex matters. However, we generally structure the free legal time to give the client considerable assurance that whatever flat fee we do set will actually be what the client ends up paying after the case is over. Nevertheless, in those situations where an unexpectedly large amount of our time is required to handle the matter we can charge more than the estimated legal fee, but if we do it will be based on an agreed upon hourly rate set forth in the fee agreement.
IF YOU HAVE A LEGAL MATTER YOU MAY WANT TO ASK US ABOUT THIS PROGRAM.
To CHAT now, just TEXT us at…. 804.300.9086
IF WE DO NOT RESPOND IMMEDIATELY, just include in your TEXT a time you’d like a telephone call from us. You can request any time to have a telephone consultation any time you’d like (even the same day) but we normally need at least 2 hours advance notice and we ask that you request a time in the .AFTERNOON.
OR
CALL 804.549.7240 or 804.935.8549