How much do you think a lawyer should charge?

Recently we had the services of a lawyer.

These services amounted to a few letters, a few phone calls, an error and a lie to cover up that error.

OK, that lawyer charged 1161 dollars.

Should we pay that much?

reply to post by catwhoknows


Ignorantia juris non excusat

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Simple words to live by. A few letters and phone calls done yourself, would save you the trouble of the lies and cover up and save you a bundle of money. Understanding the law is easy, speaking the mystical incantations of the priest class lawyer set, not so easy. If dotting i's and crossing t's is the only thing that needs to be done, a court clerk can help you and while they may be resistant to do so, they work for you, you don't work for them.

'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers' - Shakespeare.

How much a lawyer charges is related to the value you put on the service they provide and the quality of the work they do.

reply to post by rizla


Wow I love that.

Shakespeare had a thing against all bleeders of humanity.

Lawyers should only ask for a moderate fee.

Why ? Because people have rights and this means that they are entitled to someone that can explain and defend these rights without someone pulling their legs out.

i know what you mean about lawyers and huge fees.
my ex partner and i separated 18 months ago, i kept the house and he took most of the contents.
the house is in joint names and to get the title changed over to just my name is going to cost £600+. because i dont have any money to pay for this to be done it has to stay in joint names.
i'm paying the mortgage with no help from my ex, but if anything should happen to me the house automatically goes to him because he is still on the title, even tho he isnt contributing to the monthly mortgage payments.
so, because i cannot afford lawyers fees to change the title over, i get stuck with the payments and he could possibly one day end up with a house that hasnt cost him a penny.
if i sell my home, he gets half.
until i come up with the cash, there isnt jack #e i can do about it.
isnt the law and lawyers just wonderful to the un-wealthy.
dooby

Originally posted by catwhoknows
Recently we had the services of a lawyer.

These services amounted to a few letters, a few phone calls, an error and a lie to cover up that error.

OK, that lawyer charged 1161 dollars.

Should we pay that much?

In terms of actual market rate, that sounds about right. In terms of whether you ought to pay that much, it depends on how much you value what the attorney did versus either letting the matter drop or having the ability to do it yourself.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Guess what?

Lawyers charge whatever they want - why is there not a menu?

Lawyers should state their charges for everything first, like restaurants.

reply to post by doobydoll



Look into doing it yourself, it's probably just a case of knowing how to approach the mortgage provider and who to inform via letter that the deed has been done, a mate did his own conveyancing and said it was super easy.

reply to post by Toromos


Oh crap.

I could have rung the people, I could have done the letters etc.

What about the huge lie?

Originally posted by catwhoknows
reply to post by Toromos

 

What about the huge lie?

See however much we disparage them their lawyer training is useful.

On a side note if you fancy a scrap with a lawyer and can prove the lie element you could cause much career trouble for said lawyer lying in the course of your work is a big no no for an officer of the court.

reply to post by Thepreye


How can lawyers live with their consciences?

All they do is lie.

a letter should cost , say $150.
phone calls would fall under his $100. hr rate

you got at least $500 of time and presumably another $500 in clout & prestige pressure his legal status could instill to your counterparty

Originally posted by catwhoknows
reply to post by Sinter Klaas

 

Guess what?

Lawyers charge whatever they want - why is there not a menu?

Lawyers should state their charges for everything first, like restaurants.

And they usually do. It's called an al a carte hourly pay rate.

In NYC it is easy to see 395, 495, even 500+ per hour. I have seen bills with these hourly rates - and paid them. (FYI they were not my bills. Thank God!)

The problem is you usually need the attorney more than he needs you, and you are in a position where you stand to loose more than the cost of the attorney. Time is of the essence for you and the attorney knows and sometiems can abuse that.

Also, just like in every other practice, there are good attorneys and there are bad atorneys. Learning the difference between the two can be a very costly education. Pick wisely and carefully.

Contrary to your opinion, the price you were charged is not out of line for 2-3 hours worth of work. I hope the work performed was satisfactory to you, aside of the overall outcome.

-E2

-Edit for clarification(E2)

[edit on 14-5-2010 by EyesII]

It's a scam, in my opinion. NO person on this planet should be allowed to charge like that for a needed service!

I had to go to court thanks to a dishonest cop (who is now in jail, because he beat his wife). The lawyer I had (Brent O Connor, may you rot in hell!) took $350 of my money, and untold thousands from others- and then DUMPED US ALL. No warning. no letter, nada. Why? He got a position as a magistrate, and we were nothing. Now comes the fun part- I was told to go complain to the NC state bar- and I was told, in not so many words by the NC state bar assoc- who is to keep a set of standards for lawyers- 'Go to hell. $350 is below our contempt'.

Shakespeare was definitely on to something, believe me.

One of the reasons we're being bled to death by these leeches is so THEY can pay outstanding school debts! It's a 'trickle down' economy- they go to law school, the law school bleeds them dry for classes, and then the savings are passed on to us, the suckers.

Originally posted by Thepreye
reply to post by doobydoll

 

Look into doing it yourself, it's probably just a case of knowing how to approach the mortgage provider and who to inform via letter that the deed has been done, a mate did his own conveyancing and said it was super easy.

i didnt know it was possible to do this myself, i thought it was a legal process that had to be done by lawyers.
this would be great if i could do it.
why dont the legal profession inform us of any possible d-i-y options?
they dont care about fairness, just care about stuffing their own already bulging pockets.

i agree with one of the posters here who says there should be some sort of 'tariff'.
i wonder how much of the actual legal fees ends up in the lawyers pockets. my guess is its probably the bulk of it.

While i'm here, why do lawyers still get paid when they lose a case??
they are paid to represent you and win your case for you, so why should they still receive full payment when they fail you??
if you or i didnt do the job that we are paid to do, we wouldnt get paid.

i reckon lawyers should only get paid say, a set minimum basic fee, if they lose cases. that might make them fight for your side a bit harder. it would be fairer to everyone, because as things are, they get rich with our money, come win or lose.
just my opinion.
dooby.

reply to post by doobydoll



para-legals can help you out also
clerk-of-court, somewhat
advocates can assist, the AARP or similar people advocacy groups are in the phone book to assist you in getting the problem solved,
perhaps even just to referring you to a very modest priced specialist in mortgages/laws/

lawyers usually assign things like title searches to the junior staff,
or even a college a student

in any event your estranged other will still need to 'sign-off' the deed/title/lien whatever

Originally posted by St Udio
reply to post by doobydoll

 

lawyers usually assign things like title searches to the junior staff,
or even a college a student


yeh they do this then charge you top whack as if they personally have done the work.
if i pay a professionally qualified person their top fees to do a job, i would expect a professionally qualified person to do that job. is that reasonable??
when they delegate certain work to law students or whatever, why not just charge a low basic fee?
why should they be allowed to charge their extortionate fees when the qualified professional hasnt done anything?

Even Dick Turpin wore a mask, Jeez!

Dooby

I used a lawyer a middle man between myself and a detective running some investigation recently. I hate cops. I cant stand them. I'm the kind of guy who crosses every t and dots every i and I never speed and I still hate cops. Too many stories and experiences where they come swooping in for no reason at all and lay absolute waste to your life for kicks and giggles.

Cost me $250/hour and it was worth every penny. I would have gladly paid double. I wont talk to cops. Just a wave and a smile in the direction of some jacked up psycho on a bad day and you can kiss everything you've ever had and everything you will ever have goodbye.

Nobody should have that much power. Nobody.