The Flat Fee

A flat fee, also known as a fixed fee, for legal services is an up-front figure quoted to the client for all of the legal work to be done. Flat fees are gaining in popularity in recent years among small and medium sized firms, and are fast becoming the main alternative to the billable hour. In contrast to a flat fee, the billable hour is a method of calculating legal fees based on the hours worked by the attorney, usually rounded to the tenth hour, multiplied by the attorney's stated hourly rate.

Many clients prefer a flat fee to the billable hour because it provides them with a sense of predictability for the costs of legal services. For the criminal law client, a flat fee agreement typically covers the attorney's services from indictment to plea negotiations to trial, if necessary. It allows the client to decide whether or not to go trial based on what is right and just, rather than what they can afford. Likewise, family law clients prefer to know up front how much it will cost them to resolve their issue, even if it means going to trial.

A flat fee agreement also puts the risk of a complicated case on the attorney. Because the attorney sets his flat fee, it is his responsibility to accurately evaluate each client's case and estimate the complexity of the case and the amount of work that will likely be required. For the client paying by the hour, any work beyond the attorney's estimate is billed to the client. For clients paying a flat fee, it is the attorney who shoulders the burden. For this reason, many attorneys offer hybrid flat fees, where the client pays a flat fee for legal services up to a stated number of hours, and then pays an hourly fee for all additional hours. This type of hybrid fee balances the risk of a complicated case more evenly between the client and attorney.

Many costs and expenses are often not included in a flat fee, and are therefore charged to the client. Such expenses include court filing fees and costs, administrative costs, and costs associated with trial like depositions and expert witness fees. Attorneys clearly list what costs are and are not covered by the flat fee in their fee agreements with the client.

At The Law Offices of Bryan W. Wolford, we prefer the flat fee as our method of billing. We currently quote flat fees for all of our family law cases, criminal law cases, traffic tickets, wills and trusts, and for many of our civil cases like landlord/tenant law. We think that the flat fee is the superior method of billing legal services as it clearly informs the client of what they can expect to pay to resolve their legal issues. However, we always give the client the option of selecting hourly billing.

For more information about having your legal issues resolved for a flat fee, please contact our office to schedule your free and confidential consultation.

Bryan W. Wolford

Attorney At Law