Legal costs for any small or medium sized business are always a major concern. Have you ever received an invoice from your lawyer or attorney and thought; “wow that was cheap”?

No! More likely your first thought was; “how can I get these bills down?”

This article is a collection of top tips on how to do just exactly that; keep your lawyer or attorney’s costs down to a minimum.

Before Hiring

1.  Do I Need A Lawyer Or Attorney?
First of all; work out whether you actually need a lawyer or attorney to deal with the problem. See my article for help on answering this question here.
2.  Shop Around
Choose your lawyer or attorney wisely. Finding the right lawyer or attorney in the first place helps ensure that you get the best value for money. I have another article here that deals with this process in some detail.

3.  Do It Yourself With A Safety Net
As an alternative to hiring a lawyer or attorney on a full-representation basis, consider using one on an hourly rate. This allows you to get advice and help when you need it and with specific aspects of the case; writing letters, filing court papers, research legal points and offer legal opinions.
Because you handle most of the routine work yourself and only ask for the legal advice when you need it, you can save substantial amounts of money and still have the peace of mind that your lawyer or attorney is making sure that you do not make any serious mistakes.

4.  Non Lawyer Or Attorney Legal Service Providers
Rather than use your lawyer or attorney, consider using a legal service provider such as a paralegal. Depending on the nature of the work you require covering this can be a massive cost saver.
They offer assistance with relatively routine legal matters such as:

a.  Filing for bankruptcy

b.  Writing a will

c. Serving court papers

d.  License applications

After Hiring

5.  Check The Bill
When you receive your lawyer or attorney’s bill, firstly make sure you understand what you are being charged for and secondly check it through thoroughly.
Asking questions about the bill is good for 2 reasons:

a.  It shows them that you are paying attention and makes any ‘inadvertent’ mistakes less likely

b.  You will not be paying for services that you have not received!

6.  Choose The Right Fee Arrangement
Knowing the different fee arrangements that your lawyer or attorney can offer is a sure fire way of keeping your legal costs to a minimum.

a.  Hourly rate

b.  Fixed fee

c.  Contingency fees

d.  Retainers
(for more detailed advice on these options see another one of my articles here)

7.  Stay Involved
Just keeping tabs on how things are progressing rather than leaving it all to your lawyer or attorney will have a beneficial effect on your legal costs.
You can minimize costs by determining what needs to be taken care of and then covering some of those tasks yourself where appropriate, such as:

a.  Gathering general information and contact numbers

b.  Line up witnesses

c. Prepare and copy documents

d.  Running errands.
(Reducing tasks for your lawyer will result in a fee reduction for you)

8.  Stay In Control
You pay the bills so you make the decisions. Sure you pay your lawyer or attorney for legal advice but at the end of the day the buck stops with you so you make all the important decisions, especially when they could cost you money.

Unless you have a bottomless money pit to pay your legal costs from, you owe it to yourself to find ways of keeping your lawyer or attorney’s bills down to a minimum.

Following these tips will certainly help you do just that.

This article was written by Brian K Fitzgibbon CPA.

Brian is an experienced accountant and small business consultant. He runs his own business, lectures extensively on small business topics and has checked out and valued many hundreds of small businesses for buyers.

Brian is also the author of the highly acclaimed and invaluable
"How To Value A Business And Buy It Without Fear"
A do-it-yourself guide for first-time and experienced buyers alike.

To download a FREE Chapter from Brian's book please follow this link: "HowToValueBusiness.com"

June 12th, 2009 | Tags: attorney's charges, buy a business, buying a business tips, lawyer or attorney, lawyer's charges, legal bills, legal costs, understanding how your lawyer charges | Category: articles | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL  |