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Billing: Attorney Fees and Costs |
Our hourly rates are competitive with other law firms in the
Twin City metropolitan area. We pride ourselves on providing our clients with excellent legal services for a reasonable fee.
It is our observation that over the course of representation our accumulated fees are often significantly less than accumulated
fees charged by other attorneys. We believe this is because we employ fair billing practices and we budget our cases based
on numerous factors early in the case.
Written retainers are entered into describing the work to be performed
and an estimate of the anticipated fees. Please review the retainer carefully to make sure you understand what you are hiring
us to do, what the anticipated costs are and the terms of our agreement. In most cases, a certain retainer amount is required
to be paid and is put into a trust account. We then bill monthly against the retainer amount. The retainer agreement will
state when the retainer trust fund must be replenished and by how much.
In general the retainer amounts required
by the law firm are much greater for litigation cases than in non-litigation cases. Litigation is extremely expensive with
greater out-of-pocket costs and the client and lawyer have less ability to control costs than in non-litigation cases.
We bill generally bill on an hourly basis but in some cases are able to offer flat fee alternatives. Bills are
generated monthly and are itemized. You can pay cash or by a Visa credit card.
We us a legal billing system
called Practice Master that allows us to us timers to record the actual time taken to perform individual legal services to
better assure accurate timekeeping.
Whether you are exploring hiring us for a litigation or non-litigation
case, we encourage you to discuss your concerns about costs and how you will be billed.
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