Categories
Legal Fees

A Masterclass on Quoting Fees For Lawyers Who Bill by the Hour

“Estimating is what you do when you don’t know.”

~ Sherman Kent

A young lawyer named Eve called me today. She had made the same mistake that I made numerous times in my first few years of practice. She had quoted an hourly rate for reviewing and reporting on a draft agreement without providing an estimate, and then issued a bill for her time.

The client said that the bill was too high. Never in his wildest imagination had he contemplated that the job would take that much time. He did not want to pay.

Categories
Legal Fees

Who’s Zooming Who?

Long ago, when it came to billing, lawyers addressed precedents in one of two ways:

Categories
Legal Fees

Estimates or Guesstimates?

Every time I phone a call centre for just about any company, it turns out that they are experiencing a higher volume of calls than anticipated, and although my call is important to them, they must keep me on hold for a very long time.  It really makes you wonder why, after all of this time, they have not yet started anticipating a higher volume of calls and hiring more staff. Especially since my call is so important to them. I know that something does not quite add up, even if I have not zeroed in on the exact problem. I suspect that it has something to do with them lying to me and my call not actually being all that important to them.