Discover Sample Attorney Billing Descriptions for Facilities

Sample attorney billing descriptions for Facilities

hi guys today we're going to talk about a retainer agreement and what the retainer agreement should entail otherwise if not it will be avoidable and attorney can only collect a reasonable rate and what's reasonable will be decided by the court so when entering into attorney-client relationship exceeding one thousand dollars maintain agreement should specify the amount is going to be billed how it's going to be calculated hourly rate services performed all of it has to be described so for example my retained agreement explains all of that the scope of work as well and the increments how the billing is going to occur for example uh minimum 0.2 which is 12 minute tacked at my hourly rate i also have a structure 9 to 5 what if 5 after 5 pm and weekend rate rush trade everything is very specifically described so when client enters into this written agreement it's very clear what to expect typically lawyers bill every billing cycle meaning every month i prefer to bill weekly so the client has transparency and can adjust the pace of their divorce based on the budget they have for this particular month so when client is terminating a relationship um or not the client the lawyer must provide his or her billing statement within 10 days upon request exception was already provided within the last 31 days then the lawyer has to provide within the next 31 days so [Music] now we have a situation where there are exceptions exception meaning the retainer agreement does not um have all these so the retainer agreement is voidable meaning it doesn't specify everything we just described and the exception when it's still enforceable when it's a corporate client when attorney performs an emergency service when there was no retainer at all but it was a retainer before for example a client hired a lawyer for preparing divorce and then post divorce two years later the client asked them where to perform modification type of request and then it's called implied fees where the same fee structure applies to this case a client is also allowed to waive the written fee agreement and um that's all for exemptions now let's talk about when the fee is considered unconscionable an unconscionable translated means unfair too high and it's described in code section crpc 1.5 a and the definition of unconscionable is exorbitant holy disproportionate to service shock to the conscious on the level of fraud so it doesn't it doesn't mean that if a lawyer charges a higher rate and then another lawyer with the same type of experience in the community it has to be at the level of um at the level of fraud i don't know five thousand dollar per hour for a project that cost three hundred dollars that is shocking to a mind to any mind so um there was a case where a lawyer charged 7 800 for a service that typically community anywhere in the community would charge 300 so that would that was considered unconscionable um so for example if lawyer asks for services that wasn't performed there was a case where a lawyer charged one thousand dollars for appeal that he or she didn't do that was considered unconscionable or illegal fees meaning no service rendered but still still ask for the money a lawyer is not allowed to ask a client for testamentary gift unless they're related for example you know i'm you know money i understand so why don't you write me a million dollar uh will so i will work that's that's unethical um now more common not we have a situation where a client cannot afford but a family member would be able to pay for it or opposing side and it's called a third-party payment in those cases i and it's so the ethical way to do it is the third party is not to interfere with the um with the representation meaning third party cannot dictate how to represent this client uh third party is not allowed to confidential information unless the client waves um yeah it gives written consent for the third party to pay and says um i'm okay with um either waving my confidentiality or not typically what i do i i have a document that both of them sign that the third party is not gonna be able to um to interfere or my client is not waiving confidentiality just because they pay and then the client can decide case by case uh interview or meeting by meeting whether to include the third party into the meeting usually it's family members who help and they want to be involved and that's where it's very important to pay attention and also clean up cases right so if i'm representing wife husband who is defending a prenup then and the other side wants the prenup because they want to protect their asset they're usually the ones who pay that's important i would prefer them to pay the client and kind of pay me instead of them paying me directly so that i don't have to prepare and have them sign a waiver so do we need to return unturned unused funds a lawyer cannot keep funds unearned meaning if the service performed the lawyer ended the representation or particular task and a client terminates attorney-client relationship a lawyer must return whatever is not earned and aware also is allowed to create the retained agreement for fixed rate and in that case it has to be very specific what it's for so for example drafting the stipulation but the lawyer has to specify email communication need to be uh including this flat fee or not so it has to be very specific what's included and what's not i hope that was helpful i will see you soon bye