Straightforward pricing for appellate legal services
The course and duration of most appeals is reasonably predictable – or should be to an experienced appellate attorney. That means that the legal fees to handle an appeal should be predictable. Mine are. In most appeals, the cost for legal services will be a fixed amount. That means that the client will know up front – before retaining me – how much I will charge from the beginning to the end of the appeal.
So what happens if a particular appeal requires more time than anticipated and more than is built into the fixed fee model – will be appeal be short changed? Absolutely not, and there are three basic reasons for that.
For one, the pricing model that I developed accurately predicts the time necessary to complete a particular appeal within a fairly narrow range.
Second, I am a professional. I have a professional obligation to do the best I can for clients and I take pride in the work that I produce. With those things in mind, I would not take shortcuts that result in an inferior work product.
Finally, if you prefer a more self-interested explanation, here it is: Over 90% of my work comes to me on referral from other lawyers – lawyers who send me business because they know and trust me and my work. Some lawyers have been referring business to me for over 20 years. I couldn’t maintain long-term relationships requiring that level of confidence if I took shortcuts and produced an inferior product.
In sum, when I quote a fixed amount, my practical concern is not that I can’t “afford” to do the work within the quoted fee, it is that I can’t afford not to do excellent work for the fee charged.