What you may expect from The Roper Law Firm
The Fixed Fee for Service Of course, life being what it is, things sometimes happen
after an attorney gets into a Case that change things. An uncontested divorce suddenly becomes uncontested on all issues except child custody and child support. Price goes up. Yes indeed.
The Contingent Fee If your injuries are more serious, or both the Liability and Damage questions are not problems, then Fifty percent may be excessive and there will be a different deal, even after the first deal, because The Roper Law Firm will not knowingly overcharge you. The Code of Professional Responsibility, Directory Rule 2-106, which governs all Attorneys at Law, states, in pertinent part, as follows:
Factors to be considered as guides in determining the reasonableness of a fee include the following:
Hourly Billing
Our standard hourly rate is $200.00 per hour. While that is probably not the cheapest rate in town it is by no means the most expensive. It certainly is not excessive. Although $200.00 may seem a handsome wage to an individual whose pay may not be one tenth of that, remember that your attorney also supports secretarial staff,a receptionist, paralegal staff, an office building complete with gas, lights and water, a few telephones, a professional library that is updated constantly, various and expensive insurance companies, several Professional Organizations and hungry Bankers.
All that is what he is required to spend. He also needs equipment and supplies, yard folks, a cleaning service, advertising and has other expenses attendant to maintenance and operation. He has to leave town several times a year for mandatory continuing legal education, if he wants to remain Licensed, and gets to pay local, state and federal Taxes and Licensing Fees--that's a bunch. Somewhere out of that theoretical pile of money there may be a couple of bucks to buy the baby new shoes, but you get the picture.
There are some procedures that an attorney performs with such regularity that there is a fairly predictable amount of work and time required. In those situations it is possible to say exactly what the charge will be up front. For example, the client might want a deed prepared for a property transaction or a simple will. Perhaps there is a need for an uncontested Divorce or a simple Bankruptcy. In general, there are "flat fees" for those kinds of Services.
Lawsuits are expensive. Most people who are injured cannot afford pay as you go representation. In these kinds of Cases, your attorney, as a convevience to each of you and because there could be no other way, may offer to be paid for his services out of the recovery in a Case. This arrangement usually entails an agreement with you to a percentage of the recovery. Although the percentage may vary in relation to factors set out below, There is nothing unusual about a Fifty percent agreement whereby the recovery is evenly divided between the Client and the Attorney, and all expenses of Litigation come out of the Client's share as well as payment of any medical bills or other expenses to third parties. This is especially true in minor injury Cases where the total recovery is less than $10,000.
Why one half to the lawyer? First of all, there is typically not much less work for the lawyer in a $10,000 Case than in a $30,000 Case, given similar injury and circumstances. Second, questions of liability for your injury are not always slam-dunk. Your attorney may be a warrior but he is not a riverboat gambler with your money or his time. If we accept your Case, you are as important as any Client at the Firm and if there will zealous pursuit of recovery. There is no halfway. There is no second tier. There is go all out and you will pay for that, but you will also benefit from that kind of effort.
The various payment options will be explained to you so that you can make an informed choice of what to do.