Whether a lawyer in Ontario has a private practice or works for a law firm, that member of the legal profession can structure his or her fees in one of 3 ways.
Establishing a single, flat fee for each type of transaction
This fee must cover two sets of expenses. First, it covers the cost of the procedures used. Those procedures would entail the completion of operations such as searching for specific materials, retrieving documents and having specific legal papers registered.
In addition, the amount charged must cover the lawyer’s out-of-pocket expenses. Those are the expenses that have resulted from an effort to succeed at completing each of the operations listed above.
By setting an hourly fee
This structure ensures the lawyer of payment according to an hourly rate, in addition to payment of a retainer. Lawyers using this structure find it next to impossible to provide a prospective client with a quoted price. On the other hand, clients cannot be sure who is doing most of the work, if a law firm charges an hourly rate, but assigns various tasks to junior members of that same firm.
Utilization of contingency fees
This is the structure used by most of Personal Injury Lawyer in Brampton. It ensures payment to a client’s attorney once a settlement has been recovered. The attorney can get working on the case immediately, without having to wait for receipt of any deposit or retainer. Moreover, the attorney can handle a case for someone that has no ability to hand over any large sum of money.
The client does remain responsible for any of the attorney’s out-of-pocket expenses. Still, all prospective clients have the chance to take advantage of a one free consultation. Furthermore, any one client would seem to be paying the same amount for an experienced and educated lawyer as he or she would need to pay for a less-experienced member of the legal profession.
That of course, assumes that both of the consulted lawyers would manage to recover the same amount, in terms of the settlement figure. Obviously, that is not always the case. Still, the client would be hit with a minimum of expenses.
Which structure is best?
That depends on the client’s needs. Someone that wants help with writing a will would probably prefer to pay the flat rate. Someone that feels confident that a case will get resolved quickly might choose to go with the hourly rate. Personal injury attorneys feel most comfortable with the structure that relies on the contingency fees. Yet some adults shy away for filing any personal injury claims, because they are afraid to look like someone in search of what they view as ill-gotten funds.
