Three Ways to Save On Attorney Fees
Legal services can be expensive, but bargain shopping or DIY when it comes to legal matters can yield disastrous results. There are things you can do to help limit your legal expenses. Here are three (3) things that will make an impact in reducing your legal costs.
1. Get organized.
Be organized before you contact an attorney.
Outline your goals for the representation, whether you are considering starting a new business or you’ve just been served legal documents, take a few minutes to assess your position and outline your ideal outcome from the representation.
Create a timeline or a narrative detailing the who, what, when, where, and why.
Name any files in a consistent and sensible manner. Short but descriptive files names are best. Generally, twenty-five (25) characters or less, avoiding special characters and excessive spaces, and using a date format e.g. 2022-08-25_Email from Bob
2. Be honest, upfront, and intentional in your communications with your attorney.
Your attorney is obligated to ensure they read and understand your communications. Ensuring your communications with them are organized, as succinct as possible, timely, and honest will inevitably reduce costs for two reasons.
First, organized, concise, and complete communications will reduce legal costs because it will take less time for your attorney to review, digest, analyze, and respond.
Second, organized, concise, and complete communications will reduce legal costs because of the way the attorney billable hour works. Billing is done contemporaneously and is done in tenth of an hour increments. (Note: 1-6 minutes is billed as .1 (1/10th); 7-12 minutes is billed as .2 (2/10ths); 13-18 minutes is billed as .3 (3/10ths); 19-24 minutes is billed as .4 (4/10ths); 25-30 minutes is billed as .5 (5/10ths); 31-36 minutes is billed as .6 (6/10ths); 37-42 minutes is billed as .7 (7/10ths); 43-48 minutes is billed as .8 (8/10ths); 49-54 minutes is billed as .9 (9/10ths); and 55-60 minutes is billed as 1 hour).
For example, by the billable hour model when an attorney receives and responds to an email containing one question and it takes 7 minutes to read and respond that will be billed as a .2.
If a second question is later sent, and it takes 3 minutes to read and respond that will be billed as a .1.
If both questions that could have been included in the one email together the total billed time would have been a .2 instead of the .3. At a billable rate of $400 per hour planning and preparing for the email communication would have saved the client $40.00.
This same principle can be used for preparing for telephone conversations with your attorney. Before a call outline the topics, questions, or concerns you have for your attorney. Like an agenda at a meeting, this can help save time, money, and ensure that all topics, questions, or concerns are covered during that communication.
3. Contact an attorney early.
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Attorneys are not only problem solvers they have also been trained to be risk mitigators. An attorney can help individuals and business in addressing current problems but also in avoiding future ones.
If you’re interest in starting a business an attorney can help ensure your business is not only set up properly but also can ensure that it is set up in a way that mitigates the risk to your personal assets.
Bringing a contract to an attorney before signing can ensure you are more fully informed not only as to the rights and obligations that you will be binding yourself to but also your attorney can help point out any legal pitfalls in the document and walk you through other important ways to mitigate risk and protect your interest in the transaction.
Want to make sure you’re getting the most value from your legal representation? Whether you’re starting a business, reviewing a contract, or facing a legal issue, I can help you navigate the process efficiently and strategically. Schedule a chat today, and let’s discuss how to protect your interests while keeping costs manageable.