Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring A Lawyer Or Law Firm

Most business and trade references recommend securing the services of an accountant and a lawyer on or before actually doing business. A good lawyer or law firm should provide you with sound advice and prevent legal liability, which often translates into significant savings. On the other hand, when you are, in fact, suing or being sued, legal representation is indispensable and urgent.

The best counsel for you depends primarily on your legal needs. Most lawyers, whether practicing on their own or in a firm, should be competent enough to advise you on common issues and handle simple cases. Nevertheless, for complex or pervasive legal problems or when legal exposure in terms of money increase, it may be wise to consider such factors as educational background and attainment, length of period in the practice, specialization, manpower and other resources, and pedigree in hiring legal representation.

Like doctors, lawyers start out as general practitioners, but to develop their specialization, they must acquire further education, experience, expertise, or exposure in a specific field. Lawyers specializing in a specific field are generally preferred and sought after as they employ their significant advantage in education, expertise, experience and established networks in servicing their clients.

Most law firms strive to become “full service” or “multi-specialty” firms in order to become one-stop shops for their clients. Being a one-stop shop affords significant advantages for clients in terms of, among others, convenience, ease of coordination, familiarity with the business and its unique concerns, rapport, consistency of quality of service, and value for money. Thus, while a multi-specialty firm is a jack-of-all-trades, it is also a master of several fields because of the specialization of its lawyers.

Lawyers price their services in a wide range or spectrum, such that, with diligence or good referrals, you should be able to find a competent lawyer or law firm within your budget. Although exorbitant legal fees are by no means always a guarantee for top-notch services, exceptional lawyers and good law firms, knowing the value of their services, are able to put a reasonable premium on their fees in exchange for better quality of service, speed and efficiency.

In determining the price or fee rate for their services, lawyers consider many factors, including, the difficulty and complexity of your case, how much resources, time or manpower the matter will require, the venue of the case, the potential gain or exposure for the client, the client’s stature, who referred the client, and whether the client is an old or new client. These factors also determine the discounts on fees lawyers may afford their preferred clients.

Lawyers and law firms usually charge an acceptance fee upon engagement. Depending on the needs of their clients, lawyers and law firms usually employ the following billing arrangements: (a) retainer; (b) hourly; (c) per pleading/hearing (or appearance); (d) packaged or stage-billing; (e) hourly-capped; (f) contingency or success; or a combination of said fee structures.

An acceptance fee is a fee for accepting a case or a client. It is generally not considered a fee for services rendered (or work performed) as these services are, as a rule, charged separately. Upon payment, the client is entitled to representation by the lawyer or law firm and the assurance that the lawyer or law firm shall not engage other clients or espouse other interests that are in conflict with the client’s.

A retainer fee is usually a monthly fee of a fixed amount for a buffet of advisory and other services, including, review of contracts and agreements, drafting of legal opinions and other legal documents in the ordinary course of business. Corporate housekeeping and corporate secretary services may also be included in such fee. A retainer fee does not usually include prosecuting or defending against criminal, civil or administrative cases, or those before quasi-judicial agencies (such as the Department of Justice and the NLRC), which are billed hourly.

Prosecuting or defending against criminal, civil or administrative cases, or those before quasi-judicial agencies, commonly referred to as litigation, is typically billed by the hour or at an hourly rate. Extensive studies, drafting of lengthy opinions, preparation of voluminous documents or submissions requiring considerable amounts of time, manpower or effort may also be billed by the hour.

The hourly-billing arrangement is the customary fee structure employed by lawyers because it is generally regarded as the most fair for both the lawyer and the client. This is because the amount of fees is directly proportional to the amount of work performed as it is based only on the actual time spent on the matter.

Yes, instead of billing by the hour, lawyers may opt to bill by output (a pleading, motion or any other document) at a fixed rate that disregards the amount of time required to prepare the same. A fixed rate for court appearances or meetings may also be agreed upon.

A packaged or stage-billing arrangement is an alternative (like output billing) to hourly billing in that a client is charged a fixed amount for representation in a case, usually billed at certain stages of the case. The amount billed may be based on the money value of the legal claim prosecuted or defended against, in which case, it is sometimes referred to as “value-billing”.

An hourly-capped arrangement is a variation of the hourly billing arrangement in that a limit or cap, whether in terms of money or time, is agreed upon, such that even if a lawyer’s services take more time than expected, the client is not billed over the limit or cap

Instead of billing by the hour or per output/appearance, a lawyer may bill a client equivalent to a percentage (usually 10% or more) of the amount received by the client from an award by a court or tribunal in case of a victory. Note, however, that contingency fees are not popular among reputable lawyers as it places a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the case and encourages a mercenary attitude among lawyers.

A success fee is a variation of the contingency fee in that while a lawyer may be compensated by the hour or per output, he or she is entitled to collect a fixed fee in case of a victory.

Here’s how:

Advisory services, review of contracts and agreements, drafting of legal opinions and other legal documents in the ordinary course of business.	Retainer fee	Fixed amount per month
Litigation (civil, criminal or administrative cases, or those before quasi-judicial agencies).	Hourly Billing or Per pleading/hearing (for appearance) or Packaged or stage-billing arrangement or Hourly-capped arrangement or Contingency or success fee	Hourly Billing or fixed rate per output or fixed amount per stage or hourly billing with a limit or percentage of award

Legal costs and other expenses, include filing fees, telephone call costs, facsimile and document reproduction charges, courier fees, hotel and transportation expenses incurred in court appearances, cost of stenographic notes, printing of briefs and the like, are for the client’s account. Lawyers usually ask for a deposit for out-of-pocket expenses to defray these costs. These costs are not fees for professional services; rather, they are costs arising from engaging in legal processes.