Is Your Attorney Offering Reasonable Fees?

Even if you know exactly how much you should pay for a gallon of gas (or a gallon of milk, for that matter), you may find yourself completely clueless when it comes to hiring an attorney and how much you should be spending. It isn't even easy to find cost comparisons online. The world of legal fees is a mystery to most people, which is why they seldom know whether or not they should be willing to pay what a lawyer is asking. Are they getting a good deal? Are they being ripped off? How much should they be spending, anyway? To know the answer, here are some considerations you should keep in mind.

Initial Consultations

If you're expected to pay for your initial consultation, you should probably just hang up the phone. There are too many good law firms out there that offer free initial consultations to bother with those that don't. A good attorney won't need to squeeze a potential client for money even before they've signed a contract. While the best business lawyers in New York may be able to get away with this, a divorce lawyer in a small town certainly shouldn't be able to. If they are already charging you for what should be a free meeting, you're probably not going to like what they charge you for actually taking you on as a client.

Rates

The usual attorney will charge his clients in one of two ways. Either they will charge a flat rate, meaning you pay such and such amount and that covers you for whatever transaction, trial, or situation you're hiring them for, or they will bill you for each hour they work on the case. Both types of billing have their upsides and downsides. If you pay a flat rate, you won't have to worry about costs spiraling out of control. On the other hand, there's little incentive there for the attorney to work harder on your case. Hourly billing has the opposite problem. If you hire a lawyer with an excellent reputation, however, you won't have to worry about sneaky billing practices.

Don't Shop Solely on Price

Hiring an attorney isn't like buying a used car. You shouldn't be looking for the rock bottom price. You should be looking for someone with a good reputation, plenty of experience, and the ability to handle your case in a professional and expeditious manner. If you hire the cheapest guy in town, you're going to get service commiserate with that cost.