If you hire a lawyer for any reason, you know you must pay them. Lawyers seldom work pro bono. Assuming you must pay your attorney, you should know how you’ll do that. That means familiarizing yourself with the usual payment methods. For the most part, you’ll pay a lawyer an hourly rate, according to a contingency plan, by giving them an upfront fee, or by having them on retainer.
You will see some distinct advantages of contingency fee lawyers, but not all will allow you to hire them according to that model. In this article, we’ll talk about these payment methods and their negatives and positives.
Contingency Payment Plans
Let’s start by talking about contingency payment plans for lawyers. If you set up or agree to a contingency payment plan when you hire a lawyer, you needn’t necessarily pay them anything. You must only pay them if they do something they said they’d do. Normally, they’ll say if they don’t win the lawsuit for which you hired them, then you pay them nothing.
If you think about that payment structure for a moment, you’ll quickly realize that most lawyers won’t offer this deal for any other legal work other than personal injury. If you’re bringing a personal injury lawsuit against a person or entity, that’s because you believe they harmed you, and you can prove it.
Maybe you’re suing someone because their dog bit you. Perhaps you’re suing a corporation that manufactured a product that made you gravely ill. Perhaps you slipped and fell in a store, and you’re suing for that reason.
Whatever the circumstances, you’ve probably seen personal injury lawyers advertise their services on TV. They usually say in these commercials that if they can’t win your case for you, you pay them nothing. That’s a payment structure you can usually get behind. Paying a lawyer an hourly rate for a personal injury case or giving them money upfront when there’s no guarantee they’ll win makes little sense.
If you hire a lawyer because you’re the one someone’s suing for personal injury, they probably won’t offer you a contingency payment arrangement. It’s much more likely they’ll want either an upfront fee or charge you an hourly rate.
Hourly Rates
An hourly rate means you agree you’ll pay your lawyer a set amount for every hour they work for you. That includes the time they spend in court arguing on your behalf, but it goes beyond that. Any time your lawyer works on your case, whether they’re in their office or some other location while doing so, they’re billing you.
Often, if a lawyer charges you an hourly rate, they’re defending you at trial, or they’re getting ready to do so. Maybe you’re facing criminal charges and need a defense lawyer. If so, you’re hoping that the attorney can argue convincingly on your behalf and keep you out of jail.
Maybe you’re hiring a lawyer for some other reason. For instance, if you’re facing a divorce, you might pay your lawyer an agreed-upon hourly rate for their services. If so, you’re hoping they can get you the best deal when you divide up your possessions with your spouse.
You can probably think of many other reasons why you’d need a lawyer when they’d charge you an hourly rate. That rate can vary dramatically depending on what kind of legal help you need and the lawyer or firm’s notoriety. Some lawyers or firms charge hundreds of dollars per hour.
Having a Lawyer on Retainer
You might also have a lawyer on retainer. If you do, that means you have a lawyer or a law firm standing by at all times. Whenever you need it, they can spring into action and do legal work for you.
Often, big corporations have lawyers or law firms on retainer. If so, that probably means they need legal work often. It makes little sense to have an attorney or an entire law firm on retainer if you seldom need legal work. If you know individuals or entities sue you often, you might want a firm on retainer for that reason.
If you have a firm or lawyer on retainer, you pay them a set amount, usually for every week or month. However, you pay them additional money when you need them to do legal work for you.
The retainer fee just means they’re at your beck and call the moment you need legal help. Some lawyers or firms work exclusively for one company or client via retainer if that company or client has enough money and enough legal work for them.
Paying an Upfront Fee
You might also pay a lawyer an upfront fee when you hire them. If so, maybe that’s because you want the lawyer to accomplish a particular task for you. The attorney knows exactly what that task entails. They probably know how long it will take and how much they normally charge for it.
If so, it makes sense that they would have an amount in mind they can mention to you before they start working. For instance, many estate lawyers ask for an upfront fee before going about the duties of dispersing the various parts of the estate the deceased left their children or anyone else in their will.
If you need a lawyer for any reason, you must talk about how and how much they charge before you hire them. Don’t ever assume how much a lawyer charges or the payment structure they want.
Ask them about these things before you move forward. If the payment structure doesn’t work for you, or the amount they’re charging doesn’t seem fair, you can always move on to another lawyer.
Some lawyers might negotiate their fee, while others won’t budge. A neophyte lawyer who needs the money badly might take a smaller amount than they originally proposed. A well-established lawyer or law firm likely won’t deviate from their regular payment structure and asking price.