Fees and Rates

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What is Up-Front Pricing?

What's wrong with hourly billing?

Why is Up-Front Pricing better for clients?

How does Up-Front Pricing work?

What if the scope of the job changes?

How do I compare your rates by hourly-billing law firms?

Do you ever agree to an hourly billing rate?

How can I learn more about Up-Front pricing?

Up-Front Pricing is our approach to helping clients control their legal expenses. You will always know how much our work is going to cost before we do it. It’s our solution to the problems inherent in hourly billing.

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How many other things do you buy without knowing the price beforehand? With hourly billing, you never know how much you’re going to pay for a case or project until after it’s done. There is also a conflict of interest with hourly billing. Hourly billing pits the interests of the client against the interests of the law firm. If a project takes longer to complete — which is bad for the client — the law firm makes more money — which is good for the law firm. And most firms have annual billing requirements for their lawyers, who don’t receive bonuses if they fail to bill a certain number of hours. With that kind of pressure, how hard are your lawyers going to try to keep your billable hours down?

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Nobody wants surprises on their legal bills. That’s why we tell you how much a job is going to cost before we do it. You don’t pay for our time — you pay for the work we do and the value you receive.
 

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First, we meet with you and learn about your particular needs and interests. Then we figure out the best course of action consistent with your business, real estate or estate planning goals. We then decide together what the scope of that action is, and we work with you to establish the price.

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If the scope of the job changes, we will send you a change order setting out the new scope and the price for that change.

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With Up-Front Pricing, we give you a price for the job we’re going to do for you. Firms that bill hourly will usually quote you a rate. You don’t know the price unless they can tell you how many hours the job is going to take. And most firms are reluctant to commit to their prediction of the number of hours.

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Yes. Some of my clients prefer to be billed on a time-based system, where hours are tracked and billed to the client at a specific hourly rate.  I charge between  $300 and $400 per hour depending upon the nature of the matter. Certain matters, such as negotiations or mediation, are best suited for time-based billing.  Unlike most other firms, I do not bill for every activity and task associated with the handling of a matter for a client.  The following is a list of items that we do not charge to clients:

• Transmittal letters which do not contain significant legal analysis or recommendations.
• Short phone calls to update or provide general information to or from client.
• Any activity that does not add value to client’s immediate matter.
• Any activity which deals with general information about the client.
• Any activity which does not work towards resolution of the client’s problem.

Things that we do bill for:

• Any activity which provides specific value to a specific client problem or interest.

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Call me at (951) 246-5530 ext.711 and I would be happy to answer all of your questions on why this approach is better for you.
 

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