So that this post isn't just me ragging on Truean, the Governor of Texas who may well be running for President soon (possibily on the Holier Than Everyone ticket) believes the current economic crisis is a gift from God, to wean the American people off of their enslaving reliance on the Pharaoh. Also, tax breaks for buying yachts. I am way too exhausted to add to this.
I dislike lawyers. I dislike them even more when they're shrouding everything they do and I'm expected to cater to their needs without being briefed on basics.
We ain't all bad. There end up being two tiers of lawyers. The ones that represent large businesses and those who represent average people. Guess who gets paid more as a rule and thus has more clout?
You want to represent the average people and get a better rep? Stop considering $300 an hour a cheap price. There's due compensation for education and ability, and there's just plain gouging. I have never met a lawyer, no matter how low-key they thought of themselves, who had an asking price I would consider anywhere near in line with the finances of his supposed client base. In one instance, the cheapest guy I could find wanted $3500 up front to represent me in a misdemeanor case, and when I asked him about a weird letter I got from the other party, he charged me an extra $150 to place a five minute phonecall on my behalf.
Funny you should say that. I plan to charge flat rates or $200 an hour. Significantly less both in hourly and actual price billed.
Entirely justified price rant and my idea of a free structure as it would stand currently:Keep in mind that's not net, that's gross. There's a secretary and a law clerk who like to eat and so do I. Don't even get me started on office rent and printing/copying cost (those machines cost like $3000 minimum and paper/ink....Copiers constantly need repaired too.), and we won't even touch the cost of law school/student loans. Plus, if there's a billable hour, then that means there's an "unbillable" hour. It is entirely "normal" for a lawyer to work upwards of 60 hours a week and you get paid for maybe 1/3 of those.... Before expenses....
Depending on the degree of misdemeanor and exactly what happened, I'd do something like that for about $2,000 total, upfront. This would be everything through and including your trial. My safety valve would be that if it takes more than say... I dunno 40 hours to represent you, then I start charging you more. I'd try to be all inclusive, but this way if it ends up being the case from hell that really precludes me from working on other cases I'm still covered. Neither one of us wants this contingency to come into effect and hopefully it won't. I'm not touching court and filing fees though, those are on the client. Not my fault; the court sets those.
I actually had a thread a while back on starting a law firm. My problem has been that people seem to be cheap bastards and don't want to pay my boss win or loose. Translation, they just want it for free.
As for the phone call thing: Yeah, everyone seems to round up to the quarter hour. I don't agree with this and won't do it personally. I might charge you 7 minutes for a 5 minute phone call, but that's because I have to spend a minute or two documenting that you called in case I have to prove that you did (it can be important and without evidence documenting it, you're screwed). Even so, hopefully if you were smart and chose the flat rate fee, any research and the phone call would be included in that one flat rate price.
I possess three qualities that will guarantee failure in law: I'm honest, I'm not a bastard. That last one counts twice.
Our society sucks at finding reasonable ways to pay for lawyer's fees. If people wanted to purchase a sort of "insurance policy" where I'd represent you for almost anything. I could do that for $25/month. That way I could hire one lawyer for every 600 people.... I'd get like 10 lawyers serving 6000 people that way and have a kick ass law firm complete with a CPA and about 3 or 4 secretaries to handle all the paperwork/bookkeeping in your life and do your taxes for you. (25*12*600=1.8Million a year. I could finally focus on doing the casework people needed.)
Unfortunately, "that's stupid." So no one will do it.
There is one downside to this plan though, conflict of interest. If the plan covers your whole family, then I can't represent you in divorce, because husband and wife are opposing parties. Same thing if your neighbor has it. I'm sure we could work something out, especially if there were two "insurance law firms" like this, that could trade clients to resolve conflicts of interest like this (that way you get a lawyer from one firm, and your spouse gets one from the other. Poof, no conflict).
Of course, taxes could pay for attorneys who would be required to to a certain (presumably heavy) amount of casework each year, but tax seems to be a bad word, even for expenditures on justice. (and I just demonstrated how affordable it could be)
Summation in re Aqizzar's post: Gladly, long as I can pay my bills and make a living, I'd love to charge less. If I knew people would pay me instead of just saying they will, I'd even offer monthly payment plans. However, I am a professional and screw all, do deserve a lot of money for the years of studying and practical experience I have.
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Topic: Chill and Relaxed Progressive Irritation and Annoyance Thread (Read 858354 times)