Billing Pledge
The firm prides itself on invoicing its clients fairly. The firm’s attorneys and staff are trained to invoice accurately and conscientiously so that the client can be fairly invoiced. The firm has a policy of not allowing any invoice to leave the firm without at least two members of the invoicing team having reviewed it for accuracy and fairness before it is sent to the client. We know that every client would like to minimize the amount of money that they spend when seeking to win their case. Accordingly, we put the following policies and procedures in place to keep our clients’ costs and fees down.
Explaining Our Billing Process
We stand by our pledge.
- We are cognizant of every second of time that we spend and the client’s desire to minimize fees
- We only log the time necessary to accomplish the client’s goal
- We review all entries (and make the appropriate corrections) prior to sending them out to clients to make certain our clients’ billing is fair
- We Split time between attorneys and paralegals to achieve lower fees and attorneys are trained not to do work that the paralegals can do (so the client can be charged a lower rate).
- We avoid the pitfalls of other firms which are as follows:
- Logging unnecessary time
- Failing to keep track of all time spent and instead, guessing
- Charging the client-attorney rates for administrative/paralegal work
- Being unproductive and taking too long because of inexperience to perform
- Not recognizing a client’s goal to minimize expenses
- Doing the wrong work that’s not helpful to the case
- Having an improper firm mission inconsistent with fair client billing
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What is a Retainer Deposit?
A retainer deposit is an advance payment that’s made by a client to an attorney and it is considered a down payment on the future services rendered by that professional.
The retainer deposit funds the initial expenses of the working relationship. Retainer deposits do not guarantee an outcome.
Portions of retainer deposits can be refunded if services end up costing less than originally planned.
For this reason, these types of deposits usually remain in a separate account from the hourly wages of your lawyer. This ensures that money is not used before the case has been are fully closed.
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How Does A Retainer Deposit Work?
With A $2000 Retainer Deposit If the hourly legal cost charges is total of $100 an hour, the retainer covers all services up to a 20-hour limit. The lawyer then bills the client for the cost of any additional hours they invest on behalf of the client.
In this example, if a trial case takes 25 hours of the lawyer’s time, the lawyer charges the client an additional $500, which comes to $2,500 when including the retainer. If the client’s case is resolved prior to reaching the 20-hour limit, the lawyer refunds the remaining portion of the retainer to the client.
If the case is resolved in 3 hours, for example, then the lawyer would refund $1700 to the client.
Each bill is reviewed by 3 separate individuals before it is sent out to the client for final review. We’re very transparent and affordable for any situation you find yourself in.
The retainer deposit is also beneficial for the client because it provides an estimated budget for legal fees.
