There are many different reasons why a company, business, organization or agency or even a legal firm should have an attorney fee expert on staff. Without a person with this specialized type of knowledge you may find that your legal fees are not accurate or, as a legal firm, you may not be following ethical and standard billing practices.
Either scenario poses several different possible complications. If a company or business believes that outside legal counsel is not charging appropriately for their services there can be a dispute. This will result in time for both the company and the legal company in preparing their case and then having to deal with the issue. As a company that perceives you are being incorrectly charged it may mean having to find another legal firm, which could delay issues that the current legal service was in the process of attempting to resolve.
What is Fair?
There are guidelines set forth by the American Bar Association that are designed to be the best practices that all attorneys and legal firms should follow for billing clients. However, these standards or best practices are not always black and white and may be misunderstood or misinterpreted.
Deciding what is fair value and should be billed at the various rates possible can be determined by an attorney fee expert. Often legal firms are billing work and tasks at a much higher rate than the fair value. This can include having office staff or paralegals completing work but the billing rate is as if the attorney was completing the task. Obviously with different levels of training, experience and expertise the rates should be much lower for non-attorney staff than for the legal experts.
How Many Lawyers do you Really Need?
With corporate cases legal representation is rarely provided by one attorney. There will be a team of attorneys, each with their own specialization, which can handle all aspects of a complex case.
However, just how many attorneys need to be present at each meeting or at each step of the case is often not how many are in the room. Since you are paying for each attorney’s time having professionals in the room that aren’t needed will definitely increase your billable hours. An attorney fee expert can provide feedback and information on the type of representation required to keep your costs as low as possible.
An attorney fee expert is a critical part of any legal team or corporate council. For more information on how these professionals can help visit our website at.
