Ways to Keep Your Attorneys Fees Reasonable

If you have a business law case, you may be concerned about the cost of legal fees and how you will keep your attorneys fees bills to a level that you can afford. That is understandable and a very valid concern.

And while there are some things in a business law case that can affect how much you pay in attorneys fees that you can’t control, there are some things that you should and should not do to keep your attorneys fee bill as reasonable as possible.

Get an Experienced Attorney

You probably hear attorneys say all the time to get an attorney who is experienced in the legal matter or field that you need representation for.

It can be tempting to go to your friendly estate attorney or family law attorney for your business law case because he or she did such a good job on those matters. But when you go to an attorney that doesn’t have experience in the legal field that you need, you will end up paying for a learning curve. You will pay for that attorney to figure things out and make mistakes.

Non Legal Work

There is a lot of legal work in your case. But there is also a lot of non-legal work. The more of that non-legal work you can do the less your attorney will have to do.

Does your attorney need documents? Don’t dump 100s of pages, unorganized, on the lawyer’s desk. If you take the time to organize them and summarize them, that’s time that your attorney doesn’t have to spend doing those things.

Be Responsive

Does your attorney have to reach out to you 5 times to get a simple answer? Does your attorney have to file a motion with the court for more time, because he or she is waiting on you to get them information? All of this takes time and money.

These are expenses you can minimize, simply by being responsive to your attorney and providing necessary information.

Get Advice in Advance

You may think, “if I call my lawyer and ask if I can or should do X, Y, or Z, it will cost me money.” But here’s the thing: if you don’t get your attorney’s advice and you do something harmful or damaging to your case, you could be making things more expensive for yourself.

When it comes to anything that is related to, or which could affect your case, it’s always better to pay a little now to get some proactive advice than to end up with an expensive problem later on, because you did something without asking your attorneys about the legalities of what you were going to do.

Tell the Truth

Many clients want to lie to their attorneys, to make their case seem better or stronger than what it is. But by doing that, you’re making it harder, and more expensive, for your lawyer to do his or her job. Telling the truth, about the good and the bad, can make sure you’re not wasting money on legal fees.

Call the West Palm Beach business litigation lawyers at Pike & Lustig today to talk about how we can help you with your commercial litigation case.

Sources:

flcourts.gov/content/download/862345/file/Attorney

americanbar.org/groups/legal_services/milvets/aba_home_front/information_center/working_with_lawyer/fees_and_expenses/