𝐵𝑦 𝐸𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑒𝑙 𝐼𝑠𝑎𝑎𝑐, 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑚𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑒𝑙 𝐿𝑎𝑤𝑦𝑒𝑟𝑠. A lot of people need to be educated on how and for what a lawyer charges (or will charge) them for work done. Many, even the educated individuals, not surprisingly lack knowledge on lawyering. It is however understandable as it is a practice for professionals in the legal field. You have to acquire knowledge to understand on what matters a lawyer must charge you on because legal fees are prescribed and regulated by law. For various reasons, as justice is a need (and not a want), the need and occasion for one to run to the Courts will arise at one point in time in their lives. And that’s when it will be necessary for you to get or seek the help of a lawyer. For the benefit of the public, I have decided to donate some of my time to give this free advice to the general public, who are on facebook, in the hope that they will, at some point in time, utilize this information as and when the need for them to do so arises. The 2 likely opposite consequences of people not knowing how a lawyer charges his fees are: (i) a crook lawyer might charge exorbitant (unreasonably high) fees for very less work done; or (ii) an honest lawyer's bills might be questioned or doubted. All to often, the charge out rates for most senior lawyers is high. The average charge out rate for most senior lawyers will be K1,800.00 per hour. You might find this exorbitant but it is not so for reasons I am not able to explain due to space limitations. For junior lawyers, it will range from K250 to K700 per hour (depending usually on the reputation of the firm and their demand in the business). It is important to bear in mind that lawyers charge you for time spent working for you in your matter (case) which includes attending Court on your behalf. Working for you includes preparing (drafting) Court documents, undertaking research and representing you in Court. The above means that, if your lawyer attends Court but the matter is not listed, the lawyer will still charge you for his time spent travelling to Court and waiting, including time he may have spent preparing for Court attendance. That is despite the fact that the Court hearing did not take place. So you see, lawyers charge you on their time spent on doing work for you! The fees have nothing to do with you winning or losing a case. You have to pay for your lawyer's services. The amount of fees you pay your lawyer, in my opinion, is determined by 3 things:
You will be fortunate, if you engage a competent lawyer with high IQ. You will understand this better in the context of lawyers charging you on time, I explained above. Usually, a competent lawyer with high IQ does things fast thus saving you more time which in turn saves you costs. As noted above, lawyers' work, for the most part consists of reading and writing and of course occasional Court attendances. Lawyers, usually do more work in reading as they undertake research. A competent lawyer with high IQ reads fast, identifies issues and understands the research points and notes down principles in less time whereas a slow lawyer might take more time thus incurring you more on legal fees. With respect to drafting, a competent lawyer usually drafts documents at a faster rate. However a slow lawyer will take forever to write which will of course be translated into costs for you to pay. However some slow working lawyers are good and honest. They understand themselves and write most of the fees off. By slow, I mean, for example, is when a lawyer takes a full day to do or prepare your written submission. Unless on exceptional circumstances, a written submission must not exceed 4 hours to do. Most should be done in less than 2 hours. If a lawyer charges you one full day or 2 for preparing submission, that lawyer is not good for you. (2) Lawyer’s charge out rate The charge out rate for lawyers vary from lawyer to lawyer depending on their seniority and their demand on the market. A senior lawyer who is on demand will usually charge a fee as high as K2000. 00 per hour. Most of our senior big name lawyers charge at that rate. (3) Office organisation
By office organisation, I mean a lot of things. In PNG, we have a lot of one man law firms which does not employ legal secretaries or legal clerks. I have noted that often this one man law firms charge for even secretarial works, works which does not require the lawyer’s involvement or special knowledge and training. For instance, it is not for a lawyer to run around to serve letters or to file Court documents at the Court Registry, unless a client specifically instructs the lawyer to do so under special circumstances (or urgent matters). If a lawyer, on his own, attends offices to deliver documents around or files documents at the Court Registry without the client’s instructions, the lawyer is not entitled to charge the client on such clerical and secretarial works. It is wrong for that lawyer to charge for such works. For the above reasons, a law firm must be adequately staffed as it is bad for a lawyer to charge his client for doing secretarial and clerical works. By office organisation, I meant the above. If a firm is well organised, a lawyer charges you only for legal work done and not other works that can better be done by secretaries and clerks. It is my hope that some of you will find the above information helpful so that you may have an improved relationship with your lawyer. However please note that it all depends on the clients to engage their lawyers. A lawyer will not beg you to be his or her client. Clients ultimately have the freedom and right to choose. Next : A Young Trash Cleaner At The University Of Papua New Guinea Share your Inspirational Stories, Education Issues, Education Talk. Let your voice be heard: Send us your stories to us: email : pngedunews@gmail.com Share this
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