Retaining an attorney is expensive. Often the fear of how much hiring an attorney will cost causes people to delay obtaining necessary legal advice and assistance. Many times clients feel like they have no control over the costs associated with retaining an attorney. While there are some types of costs over which a client has no control, there are many that a client can control. Here are 6 ways to control the costs when you retain an attorney.
Get a Mental Health Counselor to Help With the Emotional Difficulty
Clients spend a great deal of time talking to their attorneys about the emotional side of a legal problem. While attorneys are happy to listen to these issues, they bill for the time they spend listening to you and providing you guidance on how those emotional issues are interfering with your legal positions. Allowing your emotions to take over in a legal matter can legal to dire consequences. If you want to save money on your legal fees, do not treat your lawyer (who may be charging more than $200.00 an hour) like a mental health counselor (who may charge you only $75.00 an hour).
Ask the Legal Assistant to Answer Procedural Questions
Law firms usually have legal assistants available to answer general or procedural questions such as when the next hearing will occur or how to complete a form sent by the firm. While firms may bill for the legal assistant’s time, a legal assistant’s time is less expensive than the attorney time. Legal assistants are prohibited from providing legal advice or answering legal questions and they will tell you when they cannot answer your question and must ask the attorney on your case.
Schedule Your Calls With Your Attorney
If your questions must be answered by an attorney or you want to discuss a particular issue with the attorney, group your questions and then call the office and set an appointment. It is cheaper to ask an attorney several questions at a set time than to “play phone tag” with the attorneys for each question. Each time you call the attorney, she will bill you for the call even if it only takes a couple of minutes to answer the question. If you call an attorney 5 or 6 times over a couple of days, you are likely to be billed for a total of a couple of hours of work due to the attorney have to look at the file to answer each question. If you group your questions and issues into one call, you may only spend a half an hour getting the answer you need while the attorney has your file in front of her.
Make & Organize Your Own Copies
Law offices will make copies of the documents you provide. However, the time and costs of making those copies are passed on to you. If you make your own copies, make sure you organize them in whatever way the law firm has asked you to organize them. If you do not organize your copies, the firm’s legal assistant will do it, but you will be charged to your legal bill. Making and organizing your own copies can create significant savings.
Keep Your Contact Information Updated
Law firms must keep you informed about your case status and request information from you as your case progresses. If mail or email is returned due to incorrect addresses, the law firm has to contact you by phone to get the updated information, make the changes in the file and resend any information that you were sent. This takes additional time and creates additional costs. It may also cause delays in your cases because much of the information is time-sensitive and can include important deadlines for which you must prepare. You should immediately notify your attorneys’ office every time your telephone number, cell phone number, work number, email address or mailing address changes. This not only saves you money, it will also reduce delays in your case.
Accept E-mail Service
The time and costs associated with mailing and postage are passed on to you when things are mailed to you. If you ask to receive electronic-only service of papers and pleadings from your law firm, nothing will be physically mailed to you unless we determine it necessary or you specifically request it. Receiving most of your case updates, documents and pleadings by e-mail will reduce the costs associated with your case.
