Now-a-days, fee disputes are very common between lawyers and clients. Money has always become a bone of contention and when both the parties refuse to budge an inch, things, no doubt, get nasty.
When you hire a lawyer, make sure that you ask for the "fee" terms and conditions to be written down in the contract. In order to avoid any malpractice, it is very important for you to know how lawyers compute their fees! Request for an itemized billing on a weekly or a monthly basis.
To be on a safer side, keep a record of the advances given to lawyer, meetings held along with duration, phone calls made, court appearances etc.
Whenever some discrepancies come to your attention while checking all the bills submitted by the lawyer, do not hesitate to get your doubts cleared.
In spite of all this, if some fee dispute still arises between you and your lawyer, settle it immediately with the help of the following tips:
• Discuss billing in a meeting with the lawyer. Make sure that the amounts that need clarification or verification are highlighted.
• You can take the help of the Legal Fee Arbitration Boards that have been set up in several states. The board is meant to save the time of small claims, district, and superior courts.
• Do not forget to consider the mediation services set up by Bar Associations. These programs will provide you with mediators who will hear both sides of the dispute and then, they try to solve the problem amicably.
• You can also hire another lawyer or lawyer's office to check the accuracy of the bill.
• In case of injustice, you have the right to file a suit against the lawyer.
• You can also file a complaint against the lawyer with the Bar Association.
In short, if you want to be fair to the lawyer and yourself, make sure you determine what is considered to be reasonable.
Furl It
No comments:
Post a Comment