Pay Attorney - Outline

In general, your attorney needs money to consume time on your case

In general your attorney needs money to spend time on your case

There are free, or pro bono services

However, free or pro bono services often compensate those attorneys either directly, by allowing attorneys to pick certain cases, or giving students academic credit

So, if you want to motivate an attorney, you may want to know what motivates an attorney

2. Three prevalent forms of compensation

There are three prevalent forms of paying an attorney: (1) hourly; (2) contingency; (3) flat.

Hourly means an hourly rate multiplied by the a amount of time worked

Contingency means that you and the attorney agree to split any money recovered from the opposing side

Flat fee means that you pay the attorney a single amount of money and the attorney promises to do certain things for you

3. Who pays for costs, usually client, not attorney

In addition to the attorney’s fees there are numerous and large dollar value amount of costs that need to be paid to prosecute or defend a lawsuit

Costs include costs paid to the court, costs paid to legal service processors necessary to interface with the court, costs for paper copies of papers delivered to the court, and costs to deliver files and papers to the other side, not to mention costs to pay experts for their expert testimony if necessary.

The attorney client agreement will say who pays for the costs, usually it is the client

In contingency, the attorney initially pays for the costs, but then takes those costs back from the client from the client’s portion of what is obtained from the lawsuit

4. Attorney’s Fees as part of the potential winnings from a lawsuit

Attorney’s fees have at least two meanings - one, the attorney’s fees that you pay to your attorney

But, also, two, in some lawsuits, the winning party can make the losing party pay not just the damages but the value of the attorney fees in getting the win

This second set of attorney fees is an opportunity to win more, but also a risk of losing more

5. How are the second type of attorney fees split

In contingency, generally the attorney & client split attorney fees won, but the client must pay for attorney fees that are lost;

In hourly & flat fee attorney-client agreements, generally, the client wins or loses the attorney fees

In class action, generally the attorney wins any attorney fees,but the client must pay the attorney fees if the case loses

6. Some types of problems are & are not naturally appropriate for contingency fee agreements

Contingency agreements are usually formed when:

(1) the opposing party’s liability is already established by a third party, like a collision report or insurance acceptance;

(2) there is insurance and/or real property to pay;

(3) the remedy sought is money, and the amount of money than can feasibly be obtained is larger than the value of the time to get that money

Possible contingency: (1) tenant side suits against landlords for failure to repair; (2) suits in auto collisions; (3) consumer driven lawsuits

Unlikely contingency fee agreements: (1) eviction; (2) property neighbor disputes; (3) civil harassment restraining orders; (4) contract disputes

7. Conclusion

It is a mistake to approach an attorney and think they are motivated by your problem

It is much more likely that the attorney is interested in your problem because the attorney thinks there may be money to be made

You may benefit from knowing what you want to get, how much money you can get, and whether the matter is suitable for a contingency fee agreement

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