Quoted a Legal Fee and Not Sure What It Covers? Read the Engagement Letter Twice
A legal fee is a number attached to a unit, and the unit does the real work. Here is the paperwork that defines it, and the questions that pull it into the open.
Legal Affairs
Everything filed under Legal Affairs, newest first.
Quoted a Flat Fee for Probate? What That Number Is Actually Attached To
A composite probate case shows how a flat legal fee is quoted against a defined scope, and which adjacent work, by paralegals, appraisers and clerks, sits outside it.
Free Photos, Paid Reports. What Evidence Actually Costs, and Which Parts Hold Up
In a dispute, the cheapest evidence is the photo you already took and the most persuasive is usually a number a second person can reproduce. Here is what sets the price.
Sent Three Emails and Still Lost the Argument? Where the Record Was Made or Unmade
Most complaints are settled by the record someone built months earlier, and the rules for what counts change at the state line.
Escalating a Complaint? What Each Rung Costs, and What Makes the Bill Grow
A complaint gets more expensive the higher it goes, and most of that cost is decided by what you did on the first two rungs.
Thinking About Settling? Five Things to Check Before You Sign the Release
Before you accept a number to end a dispute, five checks decide whether the offer is fair: the release language, the deadlines, who pays the lawyers, the forum, and the weekly carrying cost.
Same First Meeting, Ten Years Apart. What a Big Firm's Intake Form Now Does For You
How the first appointment with a lawyer changed between roughly 2015 and now, and which four measurements of a case actually set what the hour costs.