In this article, I will discuss five most important issues that you need to know before you sign a fee agreement with contract lawyers in Minneapolis.
1. How is the lawyer’s fee paid? There are three main models of payment that lawyers use: hourly fee, contingency fee, and flat fee. The hourly fee is the most common form of contract lawyer compensation and it is fairly simple – the contract attorney is paid only based on the time he spends on the case. If you’re paying your contract lawyer by the hour, the agreement should set out the hourly rates of the contract attorney and anyone else in this attorney’s office who might work on the case. The contingency fee, where the contract attorney takes a percentage of the amount the client wins at the end of the case, is almost never used by contract attorneys in Minneapolis. In the unlikely case that this latter type of fee arrangement is used, the most important issue to understand is whether the contract lawyer deducts the costs and expenses from the amount won before or after you pay the lawyer’s percentage. Obviously, you will pay more in attorney fees if your contract lawyer deducts the litigation costs based on the latter scenario (i.e. after you pay the lawyer’s fee). Finally, in a flat fee arrangement, you pay an agreed-upon amount of money for a project. For example, you pay $3,500 to your contract attorney to create a standard independent contractor agreement. While a flat fee arrangement is possible in a small project, it is generally disliked by contract lawyers in Minneapolis because it often lacks the necessary flexibility to account for the client’s individual legal situation. Usually, some sort of an additional payment arrangement is built into such fee agreements to make sure that the balance between the client’s legal needs and the contract attorney’s fees is maintained.
Remember, usually, you will have to pay out-of-pocket expenses (e.g. long-distance calls, mailing costs, photocopying fees, lodging, etc.) and litigation costs (such as court filing fees) in addition to your contract lawyer’s fees.
2. Does the agreement include the amount of the retainer? Most contract lawyers in Minneapolis require their client to pay a retainer. Retainer can mean two different fee arrangements. First, retainer may be the amount of money a client pays to guarantee the lawyer’s commitment to the case. Under this arrangement, the retainer is not a form of an advance payment for future work, but a non-refundable deposit to secure the lawyer’s availability. Second, a retainer is simply the amount of money a contract attorney asks his client to pay in advance. In this scenario, the lawyer usually deposits the retainer in a client trust account and withdraws money from it for the work completed according to the fee agreement. The fee agreement should specify the amount of the retainer and when the lawyer can withdraw money form the client trust account (usually, on a monthly basis).
3. How often will you be billed? Most contract attorneys in Minneapolis bill their clients on a monthly basis. Sometimes, however, when the project is small, the fee agreement will specify that you will be billed upon completion of the case. In a flat-fee scenario, it is likely that the client will be obligated to pay either a half or even the whole amount immediately as a retainer. It is wise for a client to insist in paying some part of the fee upon completion of the case to retain a degree of control over the case completion.
4. What is the scope of the contract attorney’s representation? Most contract lawyers in Minneapolis will insist on defining their obligations in the contract. The most important issue here is to state what the contract attorney is hired for without defining it either too narrowly or too broadly. Usually, a fee agreement should specify that a new contract should be signed if you decide to hire this contract lawyer to handle other legal matters.
If you are hiring a large or a mid-size law firm, beware that the partners in a law firm often delegate some or all of their obligations to their associates or even their staff. While the partners retain full responsibility for the case, there is a danger that important parts of it may be delegated to far less experienced associates. Besides the potential quality issues, there is also a concern that you would be paying a large hourly fee for a first-year associate’s work. It is important to insist that the fee agreement specifies what, if any, type of work is being delegated to the associates, the corresponding billing rate of each associate involved, and who carries the responsibility for the whole case.
5. Who controls what decisions? Whether this information should be included in the fee agreement really depends on the case and on an attorney. Generally, contract attorneys in Minneapolis let the client to make the important decisions that affect the outcome of the case (such as: acceptance or rejection of a settlement offer, commencement of a lawsuit, financial and personal contractual issues, et cetera). All of the decisions with respect to the legal issues (such as: where to file a lawsuit, what motions should be filed, what should be in the contract, negotiation tactics, etc.) are usually taken by the contract lawyers. If there are any changes to this arrangement (for example, you want your lawyer to make certain decisions with the respect to the outcome of the case), you should insist that these modifications be reflected in the contract.
Generally, before you sign the fee agreement, contract lawyers in Minneapolis will discuss with you many more topics than what is covered in this article. The five issues explained here, however, are crucial to your understanding of how the business relationship with your contract attorney will work. Before you sign the fee agreement with your lawyer, you should ask at least these five questions and make sure that the answers are complete and to your satisfaction.
