Attorney fees

[Rot 911]

When I left private practice in 2005 I was charging $250.00 per hour. I live in a town of about 50,000 and I probably was one of the highest hourly rate attorneys in town. Never had a single client call to complain about their bill. To be honest I rarely billed for all my time. If you called me and the call was only for a few minutes I didn't bother to write the time down. Fortunately it was my firm and I could do whatever I wanted.

[Porsche_monkey]

Originally Posted by Jim Cesiro

Here is a question, you call out your attorney on billing practices and he gets pissed and tells you he no longer wants to represent you. Then what?

I believe he has a legal obligation to continue to represent you. Check with your local legal society.

[MRM]

Randy, I do a mix of work for large companies and insurers and local businesses. The major corporation I do work for does check my bills every month and in three years they haven't deducted a cent. The insurer, on the other hand, has a computer program that automatically trims the bills. I had to take three cases for the insurance company last year. I final billed them all in December and all three were trimmed exactly $1,500 each. I won't do work for them or any other insurer precisely because they trim bills. I only took those three cases because they were tied up with my other book of business. I know many firms that used to do insurance defense work that wont take a case from an insurer for that very reason. If my major client started trimming my bills I'd change my book of business.

Jim, no attorney wants his client to feel like you do. There is a difference between harassing a lawyer over his bills and asking him about the status of your case and what you can expect in the future. I would suspect the lawyer doesn't know you are feeling in the dark and if he did he would explain to you exactly what was going on and why. Did you get a litigation budget and plan from the lawyer when you started the case? I think it would be a good idea for you to schedule a half hour conference with your lawyer so he could give you a case status, his strategy for moving forward, and an estimate for what tasks need to be done and what they'll cost. You can tell him that you are billing sensative but that you do expect to pay a fair fee for good service, you just need to understand what's going on.

[MRM]

Originally Posted by PBH

I believe he has a legal obligation to continue to represent you. Check with your local legal society.

That is true in criminal defense cases. In civil litigation the lawyer can generally withdraw at any time, as long as the withdrawal doesn't unfairly prejudice the client. That is differenct from state to state, but it usually means the lawyer can't withdraw the day of trial. He can withdraw with enough notice for the client to find other counsel.

[Jims5543]

I was 5 days late paying a $4,700 bill, (They are holding a $5,000 retainer) and received a letter stating that services would be withdrawn if I did not pay up.

Kind of gave me the feeling that the case does not matter as much as the money.

He is doing a stellar job, when we took the Plaintiff's deposition he really nailed him to the wall, I honestly thought they would withdraw their lawsuit after the deposition because it was apparent to everyone in the room this was a BS lawsuit.

But they are pressing on.....

[lendaddy]

My b1tch better have my money
Through rain, sleet, or snow
My whore better have my money
Not half, not some, but all my cash
'Cause if she don't,
I'm gonna put my foot in her ass.

BTW, I just spent a few hundred oin the phone with mine. Good guy but he made no bones about needing that retainer asap.

[cgarr]

Jim:

They could be using the ole Insurance Company ploy, "Last one standing wins" or who ever runs out of money first, loses. They tried that with me, didn't work!!

[gassy]

Jim,
You probably can't talk about it--but what's the lawsuit about?

[911Rob]

Hey Jim,
Sorry to hear about this buddy, just chiming back in from my last post and see what you're up against.

Hard to say without knowing the facts. I'm a developer, dealing with lawyers was a daily routine in my prime days. You learn how to deal with them, much the same as dealing with other professionals like architects. They work for me; I keep control.

In my prime, I had three lawyers; all good guys. One guy charged me $65/hr, another $125 and another $250; this goes back 10 to 15 years ago. I would pick my the lawyer that I needed; sometimes I went from the $65 to the $250. The $250 guy is the best in the Country, drives a 930 twin turbo too. But his bills can bring you to your knees.

I have worked along side the $250 (Kerry Powel of Calgary) guy with some of his clients as a liasson to keep the legal bills down, and I've done some claims consulting helping companies keep their legal bills down. A recent case we worked on together involving a HUGE developer and contractor BULLY team cost our client $300,000 to defend himself from going bankrupt; never even went to discoveries. We won btw!

I am currently being sued by a total lier; slam dunk case, witnesses, paperwork, etc. and the suer won't back off; going to discoveries soon. It's so frustrating defending yourself against these type of people.

another story: one time the City of Calgary sued me with their in-house corporate lawyers and endless funds, I had to sue my mechanical contractor as a result; which he went broke over, but luckily his insurance company kicked in. The case involved millions of dollars and after 3 or 4 years, I lost. It was absolutely ugly. The City's lawyer was extremely smart and intelligent and they had a friggin filing cabinet of legal mumbo jumbo tied to my 'small' contract that I'd signed. I recovered all my costs from my insurance company, who in turn recovered from the mechanical contractors insurance company.

I'd love to help out anyway I could Jim, just let me know; otherwise the best of luck to you!
Maybe time to change your avatar to a smiling, happy guy?

[Jims5543]

Removed

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by 911Rob

I'd love to help out anyway I could Jim, just let me know; otherwise the best of luck to you!
Maybe time to change your avatar to a smiling, happy guy?

My avatar makes me giggle. It stays.

[WI wide body]

Any lawyer that charges $300-400 per hour should be among those guys that I mentioned in another post...when that lawyer goes to get a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk the clerk should be able to pick anumber out of the sky...like $71.60 or 47.95 or whatever strikes the clerks fancy at that particular time.

Because if a lawyer is truly worth $400 an hour then his food should certainly be worth a similarly priced amount.

Yes, I do have issues with most of the fees that most of lawyers charge for most of the things they do. Certainly there may be isolated instances where the lawyers are worth what they are allowed to extort from their clients...but not very damn often.

Much of the time people have to get a lawyer when they are at their most vulnerable (divorce, death, business or personal disputes, crime issues, etc) and these social parasites often benefit only because of the bad fortune of their clients. And sometimes they even appear to take advantage of their clients.

It's no small coincidence that most of our scummy politicians are former lawyers!

[911Rob]

Thanks Jim, appreciate the explaination.
I sure hope it works out for you AND I like your avatar too, its was just a little graphic when I read your first reply

[dtw]

Originally Posted by WI wide body

Any lawyer that charges $300-400 per hour should be among those guys that I mentioned in another post...when that lawyer goes to get a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk the clerk should be able to pick anumber out of the sky...like $71.60 or 47.95 or whatever strikes the clerks fancy at that particular time.

onramp?

[MRM]

Depends on what you need the lawyer for and how bad you need him, doesn't it?

[gprsh924]

Originally Posted by dtw

onramp?

One of the funnier posts I have read in awhile

[the]

Originally Posted by dtw

onramp?

Oh, snap!

[WI wide body]

Originally Posted by MRM

Depends on what you need the lawyer for and how bad you need him, doesn't it?

Just like it "depends" on how bad the lawyer might need bread or milk, doesn't it?

[WI wide body]

Originally Posted by dtw

onramp?

Offramp?

[hytem]

Sounds reasonable. Just don't make any phone calls to him. Except to make appointments with his secretary. And keep it short.