This is a question that I am often asked. Why is it that I have received a bill from my lawyer and they have charged me time in blocks of 6 minutes and where I have spent say 6 and a half minutes on the phone with the lawyer why does that cost me twice as much as if I had spent 6 minutes on the phone with them. This is a frustration for many business owners when they are dealing with a lawyer as they don’t know why lawyers charge the way that they charge.
The short answer is that it is based on a misunderstanding of a series of papers written for the American Bar Association Journal from 1940. As quoted in Implementing Value Pricing by Ronald J. Baker, the author of these papers was Reginald Heber Smith who was a managing partner at a Boston law firm. At the time Mr Smith was looking for a way to account for and manage the cost of the inventory of his business. In this case Mr Smith saw time as the commodity that the business of law was producing.
To do this Mr Smith argued that the time sheet should be kept in periods of 1/10th of an hour, therefore 6 minutes to enable tracking and monitoring of the commodity of time. Therefore, Mr Smith advocated that lawyers should keep time sheets to prove this efficiency. He did not advocate that the lawyer should use this to charge their clients. Unfortunately this paper and this approach has since 1940 become more and more the way that lawyers charge for the work they perform.
If your lawyer is charging you based on the time they spend on your matter you should challenge them to provide a fixed fee quote to give you certainty on the price that you are going to be charged moving forward.
At Business Legal Lifecycle we know that dealing with a lawyer can be difficult, it can seem daunting and costly. That is why we have designed our Legal Risk Assessment Tool and Education Course to help you to understand the law without a law degree. It is often difficult to understand what you need to do before you go to a lawyer and what costs you will save by taking a proactive approach (by its very nature a proactive approach saves you money that you would otherwise spend) but trust us that the savings are huge.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
You have a legal problem that has come up. What do you do, who do you speak to? What are my options for dealing with this in a way that isn’t going to cost me a lot of money. Depending on your personality and where you are at in your business knowing what to take with you to a meeting with a lawyer is often a challenge.
Understanding the legal aspects of your business is crucial for your success. All too often we see business owners spend thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to solve a legal problem in their business. Sure, some of those problems are unavoidable but whether you are going to see a lawyer to prevent a problem or if you are reacting to something that has happened there is a lot you can do to prepare to see a lawyer.
Ask great questions
When you go to a lawyer they will generally ask you a lot of questions about your situation. Before you go to the lawyer you should spend time seeking to understand what it is that they will be asking you so that you can properly prepare for that meeting. Part of that is educating yourself on different legal aspects of your business, what they mean and how they might apply to you.
Next, you should ask the lawyer (or their team) what you need to bring to the consultation. Depending on the type of meeting that you are having with the lawyer you may need to bring documentation a completed questionnaire or other important information to that meeting.
What our tool is not designed to do?
The tool is specifically designed to produce a report that you can take to your lawyer so that they can help to implement the legal risks. Generally to obtain this type of advice from a lawyer would require an investment of around $1,000.00 (or 1,000.00 pounds) so that the lawyer can interview you, obtain all of your information and then write the report. Alternatively often lawyers may try to do this advice for free and then charge you more when they implement and do the work.
Either way the report is designed to save your time and money to find out this information and then have your lawyer do the work. We have also designed it to explain to you, in plain English, what all of these legal terms mean and why they are important. This means that when you go to see your lawyer you will not need them to explain what you need to do, you will already understand.
How you can use it to better work with your lawyer
Designing a tool that identifies every single risk factor in your business is impossible and any tool that tried to do that would take many hours to complete. Your time is far too valuable to waste doing that and any tool that pretends to do that will have gaps. For that reason we designed the tool to give you a broad understanding of what your legal risks are and what to do about them.
The same is true of our education material and Jeremy Streten’s book, The Business Legal Lifecycle. They are designed to give you a broad understanding of what you need to put in place for your business.
What if they say its up to you?
Sometimes the lawyer or their team members may leave it up to you so here is a list of what you should bring:
- A written statement as to what happened and why you need their help (even if this is in note form it will help you not miss anything);
- A list of questions that you want answered;
- Any documents that go for or against what you are trying to argue (where you have a dispute and remember they need to see everything);
- The details of all of your entities and structures so that the lawyer can understand your business structure and what you own (as well as owe); and
- Details of any previous advice that you have received.
At Business Legal Lifecycle we know that dealing with a lawyer can be difficult, it can seem daunting and costly. That is why we have designed our Legal Risk Assessment Tool and Education Course to help you to understand the law without a law degree. It is often difficult to understand what you need to do before you go to a lawyer and what costs you will save by taking a proactive approach (by its very nature a proactive approach saves you money that you would otherwise spend) but trust us that the savings are huge.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
How much does it cost to ask a lawyer a question? I don’t know what I will be charged or even how they will calculate those charges? How do I know if I am being overcharged receiving legal advice? Understanding the legal aspects of your business is crucial for your success. All too often we see business owners not asking questions of their lawyer because they don’t know what the cost will be. This ends up costing the business owner a lot of money when they encounter problems that could have been avoided. Sure some of those problems are unavoidable depending on who you deal with but the vast majority of problems within a business can be solved if you take a proactive approach to protecting your business.
At Business Legal Lifecycle we know that dealing with a lawyer can be difficult, it can seem daunting and costly. That is why we prepared this article to give you a guide on how lawyers should charge so you know what they cost.
Cost of a Lawyer
To work out the cost of a lawyer you need to ask them what they will charge to help you. Generally lawyers charge their clients on one of two basis, firstly is a fixed fee for a service and second is an hourly basis based on how much time they spend doing the work.
Time Based Charging
Let’s start with charging based on time. These costs can vary from $200 per hour to as high as $1,200 per hour. Some law firms will calculate this on the actual time spent (i.e. they will track all of the minutes that they work on your file but more commonly they work this out in 6 minute increments). This is an antiquated way of running a business and creates a lot of problems between lawyers and their clients.
The problems with this approach are numerous, some of the key ones are it:
- Disincentives you as the client to get legal advice and to carry on a discussion because you are worried about the time you are being charged. Imagine you are on the phone to a lawyer and the call goes for 6 minutes and 30 seconds, all of a sudden you are up for 2 x 6 minute increments (also known as power billing);
- Incentives your lawyer to spend more time doing the work on your file and not find the more efficient way to deal with your opportunity or problem;
Fixed Feed Based Charging
The second way of charging for the work performed by a lawyer, a fixed price, is a much better way for you to understand what you are being charged and control the expenses in your business. Frankly this is a much better business model for you to engage a lawyer through so that you know exactly what you are being charged and if a lawyer can’t give you a fixed price then they don’t understand the work that they need to do well enough.
These charges are often out of reach for many business owners. That is why we created the Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment. It is a tool that takes about 10 minutes to complete online by answering 31 questions about your business and costs $97. It provides a report that sets out the legal risks in your business and what you need to do to protect them. For a lawyer to prepare a similar type of report it will take generally between 2 to 4 hours. That means that the cost of obtaining this advice from a lawyer could be as little as $400 and as much as $4,800.
The Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment gives you a report that sets out what is missing in your business, why you need to prevent those legal risks and a plan for the future of your business. Importantly you can take it to your lawyer to then do the work that they are good at, preventing those legal risks within your business and you get all of this without the cost of a lawyer preparing the report in the first place.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
How did my lawyer work out the hours that they worked on my matter? I can’t seem to get this invoice to add up? How do I know if I am being overcharged receiving legal advice? These are all questions that we often see coming up for business owners when they receive legal advice. Sometimes it is difficult to understand just how a lawyer has calculated their hours and their fees.
If a lawyer charges you based on a fixed price quote then the hours that they worked for you don’t matter so long as you receive the outcome that you are after from the lawyer. This can be difficult to realise for some people especially those who are used to being charged by their lawyer based on the number of hours that they worked.
Time Based Charging
The cost per hour can vary from $200 per hour to as high as $1,200 per hour. Some law firms will calculate this on the actual time spent. This is an antiquated way of running a business and creates a lot of problems between lawyers and their clients.
The problems with this approach are numerous, some of the key ones are it:
- Disincentives you as the client to get legal advice and to carry on a discussion because you are worried about the time you are being charged;
- Incentives your lawyer to spend more time doing the work on your file and not find the more efficient way to deal with your opportunity or problem;
What our tool is not designed to do?
The tool is specifically designed to produce a report that you can take to your lawyer so that they can help to implement the legal risks. Generally to obtain this type of advice from a lawyer would require an investment of around $1,000.00 (or 1,000.00 pounds) so that the lawyer can interview you, obtain all of your information and then write the report. Alternatively often lawyers may try to do this advice for free and then charge you more when they implement and do the work.
Either way the report is designed to save your time and money to find out this information and then have your lawyer do the work. We have also designed it to explain to you, in plain English, what all of these legal terms mean and why they are important. This means that when you go to see your lawyer you will not need them to explain what you need to do, you will already understand.
Calculating the hours
When you are being billed based on time the lawyer needs to count the number of hours that they work on your file. To do this, they will track all of the minutes that they work on your file but more commonly they work this out in 6 minute increments. This means that if you are on the phone to a lawyer and the call goes for 6 minutes and 30 seconds, all of the sudden you are up for 2 x 6 minute increments (also known as power billing). This is how a lawyer’s bill can really add up and you can feel as if you are being ripped off.
These charges are often out of reach for many business owners. That is why we created the Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment. It is a tool that takes about 10 minutes to complete online by answering 31 questions about your business and costs $97. It provides a report that sets out the legal risks in your business and what you need to do to protect them. For a lawyer to prepare a similar type of report it will take generally between 2 to 4 hours. That means that the cost of obtaining this advice from a lawyer could be as little as $400 and as much as $4,800.
The Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment gives you a report that sets out what is missing in your business, why you need to prevent those legal risks and a plan for the future of your business. Importantly you can take it to your lawyer to then do the work that they are good at, preventing those legal risks within your business and you get all of this without the cost of a lawyer preparing the report in the first place.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
At Business Legal Lifecycle we know that dealing with a lawyer can be difficult, it can seem daunting and costly. That is why we have designed our Legal Risk Assessment Tool and Education Course to help you to understand the law without a law degree. It is often difficult to understand the costs that you will save by taking a proactive approach (by its very nature a proactive approach saves you money that you would otherwise spend) but trust us that the savings are huge.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
What questions should I ask my lawyer?
To ensure that there are no surprises, that you are all on the same page and that you are not left guessing you should prepare a list of questions to ask your lawyer at the appointment. You should prepare questions relating to your specific matter as well as asking the suggested general questions below:
- How much will this cost me?
- What is the timeframe for completion of the work?
- What further information do I need to provide to you so you can get started?
- What do you anticipate will be the outcome of this matter?
- What is the best way to contact you, phone/email?
- How often will you provide me with updates on the matter?
- Will anyone else be working on my matter?
Your lawyer will also ask you a lot of questions about your situation. Make sure that if you believe that something has been missed that is important that you raise it in the meeting (or tell them later). To do that properly you need to educate yourself on different legal aspects of your business, what they mean and how they might apply to you.
How can I educate myself before I see my lawyer?
When you go to see a lawyer you need to be aware of some of the terms and areas that you may cover in that meeting. There are lots of great tools that you can use to educate yourself on what other lawyers see as important for your legal matter. Importantly though you don’t want to tell your lawyer that you know what needs to be done and that you just want them to confirm that position. You need to spend time understanding what it is that you will need to then have a discussion with your lawyer about those maters in an intelligible manner.
At Business Legal Lifecycle we know that dealing with a lawyer can be difficult, it can seem daunting and costly. That is why we have designed our Legal Risk Assessment Tool and Education Course to help you to understand the law without a law degree. It is often difficult to understand the costs that you will save by taking a proactive approach (by its very nature a proactive approach saves you money that you would otherwise spend) but trust us that the savings are huge.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
You have a legal problem that has come up. What do you do, who do you speak to? You have worked hard on your business so it is understandable that don’t want to just trust anyone with your legal matters. You want to make sure that the lawyer you choose is the right one for you.
Ask for a referral
One option to find the right lawyer is to ask for a referral from someone you know and trust. This may be a friend or colleague who has engaged a lawyer to help with their business matters. Knowing that the lawyer has dealt with their legal matters effectively will give you confidence that they are equipped to deal with your legal matters. Another person to ask for a referral from is a consultant that you deal with on a regular basis such as your accountant. Your accountant will likely have relationships with various lawyers that they deal with on a regular basis and by knowing your business they should be able to refer you to a lawyer that they think would be suitable to help you.
Do your own research
If you aren’t able to get a referral to a lawyer you can find information by doing an online search. You can tailor your search to look for a lawyer who specialises in business matters. Look for lawyers who have testimonials from their clients attesting to the quality of the work that was done for them.
Be Prepared
The Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment is a tool that takes about 10 minutes to complete by answering 31 questions about your business. It provides a report that sets out the legal risks in your business and what you need to do to protect them, why you need to prevent those legal risks and a plan for the future of your business. Importantly you can take it to your lawyer to then do the work that they are good at, preventing those legal risks within your business and you get all of this without the cost of a lawyer preparing the report in the first place.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
It’s coming up. You have put off preparing for this for weeks. I don’t know what they will need. Depending on your personality and where you are at in your business going to see a lawyer can be a challenging meeting to prepare for.
Understanding the legal aspects of your business is crucial for your success. All too often we see business owners spend thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to solve a legal problem in their business. Sure some of those problems are unavoidable but whether you are going to see a lawyer to prevent a problem or if you are reacting to something that has happened there is a lot you can do to prepare to see a lawyer.
What questions should I ask when I book the meeting?
When you go to a lawyer they will generally ask you a lot of questions about your situation. Before you go to the lawyer you should spend time seeking to understand what it is that they will be asking you so that you can properly prepare for that meeting. Part of that is educating yourself on different legal aspects of your business, what they mean and how they might apply to you.
Next, you should ask your lawyer if they have any documentation or questionnaires that they would like you to complete. Often a lawyer will have a questionnaire asking some basic information about you that would help them before a meeting. Also ask if you should bring any documentation. This is especially true if you are in a dispute with someone, your lawyer will need to see all of the documentation that you have in support of your case.
Importantly you should ask if there is a fee for the meeting. Some lawyers charge a fee to meet with them, others simply do a free hour that is designed to sell you into more work. You need to decide what you need but asking up front what the costs will be will save any awkward conversations at the end. HINT: if it better if they charge you a fee upfront, there is no such thing as a free meeting so if you are prepared to pay something that will usually mean that you get something tangible rather than an attempt to sell you into another service.
How can I educate myself before I see my lawyer?
When you go to see a lawyer you need to be aware of some of the terms and areas that you may cover in that meeting. There are lots of great tools that you can use to educate yourself on what other lawyers see as important for your legal matter. Importantly though you don’t want to tell your lawyer that you know what need to be done and that you just want them to confirm that position. You need to spend time understanding what it is that you will need to then have a discussion with your lawyer about those maters in an intelligible manner.
At Business Legal Lifecycle we know that dealing with a lawyer can be difficult, it can seem daunting and costly. That is why we have designed our Legal Risk Assessment Tool and Education Course to help you to understand the law without a law degree. It is often difficult to understand the costs that you will save by taking a proactive approach (by its very nature a proactive approach saves you money that you would otherwise spend) but trust us that the savings are huge.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
Still unsure check out the legal foundations for your business with our free “workbook” (to be written)
Going to see a lawyer can be a quite significant expense, so it is important to be prepared before you go so that you use the time efficiently. To get the most out of the appointment you need to be able to articulate exactly what it is that you are seeking from the lawyer in the meeting. Having a clear understanding of what it is that you are after will allow the lawyer to ask you the proper questions that will help you.
What outcome do you want?
You should spend time thinking about what you want to achieve by seeing the lawyer. You need to know what outcome you would be comfortable with. They can then suggest different options to achieve that outcome.
Write everything down
You may be a little overwhelmed during your first appointment so to avoid forgetting anything important you should write down a summary of your legal matter and what you want to achieve beforehand and take it to the appointment with you.
Prepare a List of Questions
It is also a good idea to prepare a list of questions to ask your lawyer at the appointment. You should prepare questions relating to your specific matter as well as asking the suggested general questions below:
- How much will this cost me?
- What is the timeframe for completion of the work?
- What further information do I need to provide to you so you can get started?
- What do you anticipate will be the outcome of this matter?
- What is the best way to contact you, phone/email?
- How often will you provide me with updates on the matter?
- Will anyone else be working on my matter?
Your lawyer will also ask you a lot of questions about your situation. Make sure that if you believe that something has been missed that is important that you raise it in the meeting (or tell them later). To do that properly you need to educate yourself on different legal aspects of your business, what they mean and how they might apply to you.
The Business Legal Lifecycle
he Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment is a tool that takes about 10 minutes to complete by answering 31 questions about your business. It provides a report that sets out the legal risks in your business and what you need to do to protect them, why you need to prevent those legal risks and a plan for the future of your business. Importantly you can take it to your lawyer to then do the work that they are good at, preventing those legal risks within your business and you get all of this without the cost of a lawyer preparing the report in the first place.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
Still unsure check out the legal foundations for your business with our free “workbook” (to be written)
If you are thinking that the Business Legal Lifecycle can’t replace legal advice then you would be 100% correct. It is not designed to replace legal advice, in fact it’s quite the opposite!
How you can use it to better work with your lawyer
It doesn’t matter how long you have had the relationship with your lawyer there will be aspects of your business that your lawyer doesn’t know about. There are also going to be areas of the law that you don’t know could be a problem.
Nothing substitutes for tailored advice
The Business Legal Lifecycle will give you a fundamental understanding of what you need to do, why you need to take that step and whether you need to take any other steps. However, your situation will be unique to you, that is why you need to get tailored advice from your lawyer that will apply to you and your business.
The Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment gives you a report that sets out what is missing in your business, why you need to prevent those legal risks and a plan for the future of your business. Importantly you can take it to your lawyer to then do the work that they are good at, preventing those legal risks within your business and you get all of this without the cost of a lawyer preparing the report in the first place.
About Business Legal Lifecycle
The Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment and Education Course are designed to help you to understand the law without a law degree. Without knowledge you don’t know your legal risks which could cost you a lot in the future.
By working together with the Business Legal Lifecycle lawyers can help their clients to prevent legal risks within their business and prevent so many problems that commonly afflict small to medium sized businesses.
Get your Business Legal Lifecycle Legal Risk Assessment by clicking here now.
Still unsure check out the legal foundations for your business with our free “workbook” (to be written)
