Everyone has a favorite “whipping boy,â€? and for entrepreneurs, lawyers and legal fees often fill that role. Sigh. Â
Well, entrepreneurs, you’re not alone. Seems a study of in-house and general counsel of major corporations in the UK have a similar gripe -– in particular, that the bills are padded with junior associate time. There are ways to handle the legal fee situation without foregoing legal help altogether.Â
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Ask detailed questions about billing structure before you start. You have every right to ask, and you certainly don’t want to be surprised. Who will actually be doing the work on your matters? What is their billing rate? Are you charged for inter-office communications, that is, two attorneys talking to each other about your situation?Â
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Get clear before you call. While an attorney can (and should!) help assuage your fears and anxiety, attorneys are like many other consultants: they often sell their expertise in time-based increments. And have a little sympathy; we can only (legitimately) sell the same 24 hours. Every hour an attorney spends listening to the vengeful fantasies of a wronged client is an hour that can’t be spent on someone else’s matter. So if you have a question, ask it; if you want to chew the fat and be “chummy,� try to find another alternative – take your lawyer out to dinner or drinks, or save the therapy hour for your friends.
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Set a budget. Unquestionably, you don’t want to drown in legal fees, but it’s not reasonable to expect to get everything for free. You expect to be paid for your products and services, yes? And to be paid a fair amount (like, not 50 cents on the dollar just because someone doesn’t like what you charge)? Discuss in advance what you can reasonably expect to pay for the services and how you can help keep costs down.Â
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Raise billing questions immediately. If there is anything you see on the bill that you don’t understand, ask about it. There’s no shame in doing so. My mother had a saying (about, for example, the diamond necklaces that would sparkle in Tiffany showcases): “If you have to ask [the price], you can’t afford it.� Not only do I disagree totally, but in the business world, that’s a senseless attitude. You want to know that you’re getting value for your money. And people do make mistakes. For the same reason, you should check your bank and credit card statements carefully every month.
You’re an entrepreneur – be fearless! Don’t let the prospect of attorneys and their possible fees (you could be pleasantly surprised) deter you from seeing the help you need. Here’s a shameless plug for a resource I have created on my Wise Counsel Press website – a free podcast on savvy strategies (and questions to ask) for choosing and using attorneys. Check it out and let me know what you think!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 11:16 am and is filed under Lawyer Low-Down, Your Advisory Team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.4 Responses to “Even the Big Players Complain About Legal Bills”
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May 9th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Nina,
I’m so glad you wrote about this. I started using my attorney for everything and felt so covered and so safe BUT then I got the bill. I was charged for things like “Listening to clients voicemail” and I couldn’t believe it. But you are absolutely right – the lawyer is not the person to call and get all chummy chum chum with. I learned that the hard way. Thanks for this blog – it’s great advice and info!
Best,
Lauren
June 26th, 2007 at 10:39 am
This is why people in today’s society need prepaid legal. Business owners and individual families need this legal protection.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Well, I have been trying to make a go of it and blogging my brains out, but I certainly have to give you credit. That was excellently done. I don’t always make such clear points and a lot of blogs I read are poorly written and leave wondering just what were they trying to say.
I find it so hard to come up with new ideas and rewritting someone else’s work can backfire. Particularly if you don’t know whether they are truly an expert in their field. The longer I work on the internet the more I wonder about most of the content. However, to be fair their are many aurthors in the print media out there that espouse their ideas as fact when they are clearly questionable. It is almost as easy to have a book published as an ebook.
Anyway, thanks for the great blog.
July 11th, 2009 at 6:18 am
I looked into what you talked about in this article and I had to convince myself that you were wrong. I looked up the info and it seems you are 100% correct in your statements. Because of this, I have subscribed myself to your RSS feed. Keep up the great work here.