Fees
All the cases I take are charged as a fixed fee. You will know exactly how much your case is going to cost. In my flat fee cases, we do not bill for phone calls, faxes, photocopies, or meetings. Everything is included in one price.
I switched to the flat fee case model after listening to my client's concerns about being nickeled and dimed by not only my firm but by other attorneys who bill for each minute spent on a case. I can assess how much a case is going to cost from beginning to end. With the flat fee system in place, clients will know how much their case is going to cost.
Clients tell me that their favorite feature of flat fees is predictability: at the outset of an engagement, a client can get a firm budget for legal fees through settlement or trial. I have never renegotiated a flat fee with a client, requesting more money after signing an engagement letter, even when the engagement turns out to be a more difficult case than initially anticipated or if the case lasts longer than expected. Budgets, caps, and estimates on hourly billing at best reduce clients' uncertainty; genuine flat fees like mine eliminate that uncertainty.
Tara Kersh is the Texas Adoption Lawyer, a boutique law firm specializing in adoptions. Free consultations by appointment.