The following are suggestions to help you control your legal fees. Attorneys do cost money, but as you will see, there are ways you can help to limit those costs.
You can greatly reduce "legal footwork" by clearly and concisely completing all the information requested on the Client Interview Form (Click to view).
Any information you can get regarding bank accounts, annual pension reports, stocks, etc., will help and save you my time in trying to obtain this information through the other attorney or other legal process.
A letter or e-mail is an inexpensive way of keeping your attorney up to date on information they need to know about your case. If you wish advice on a current situation, a letter or e-mail gives the attorney a chance to think about your problem before they communicate with you. It takes much less time for an attorney to read a letter than to have a telephone conversation or conference.
For example, if your attorney spends 24 minutes (0.4 hour) on the telephone and another 12 minutes (0.2 hour) writing a memorandum on that call for the file, it will cost 0.6 hours at $200 per hour, or $120. If, on the other hand, your attorney spends 6 minutes (0.1 hour) reviewing a letter and another 12 minutes (0.2 hour) discussing it with you, it will cost 0.3 hours at $200 per hour or $60.00.
As you can see, frequent or lengthy telephone conversations add up quickly. In addition, a letter provides a written document that I can kept in your file for review. And if you are confused about something, putting it down on paper and seeing it in black and white is often helpful to both attorney and client.
Since you will be billed for all of the time that your attorney spends on your case, you will save money whenever you can do your own negotiating, for example, on day-to-day issues such as who pays the car insurance or other bills, parenting time arrangements, etc. Whenever a lawyer is asked to negotiate on your behalf, costs escalate. You will pay for (1) your telephone call to your attorney, (2) your attorney's telephone call to the other attorney, (3) his or her reply to your attorney after contacting your spouse; and (4) your attorney's response to you. If each call is a minimum of 0.1 hour, each round of negotiations will cost you at least 0.4 hours at $200 per hour, or $80. If the calls average 0.2 hour, the cost is $160. If round 1 does not solve the problem, round 2 begins. It is expensive to use the attorney to negotiate those matters if you can resolve them on your own.
You might be able to think of other ways to work efficiently together with your attorney. If both of you consider what needs to be done and the cost and benefits of each task, you and your attorney can do the best job for the case with the available resources.
If you have any questions about the cost of a case, most attorneys do not charge you for the time spent discussing costs.
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