FEES

 

In 2010, as part of our commitment to fair and responsible solicitor's practice, and our fees policy, we have revised our fair fees policy and introduced from Feb 1st 2010, thanks to a neat little iPhone application we've got, real time billing. In other words, when work is done on your file, you will get an update of the fee note by our close of business that day. In practice, you often get this within minutes of the work being done.

 

REAL TIME FEES - Now Free! Worth £293!

  • Originally we charged a one-off fee of £250 +VAT for real-time fees.
  • Our new 2010 real-time fee system is so simple that we no longer charge for this service. This means that clients get real-time fees free. (You can opt-out if you wish so that you get monthly fees).

This means total transparency, you see the fee note and the entry as we produce it in our timesheets.

 


If its real time, why do I only get it at the end of the day?
We've limited this to once at the end of the day because we want to avoid you getting 5 or 6 notifications during the day if we get 5 or 6 phonecalls or letters during the day. Your time is valuable too!

 

Why Real Time Billing?
Many, many solicitors, if honest, will admit that they've witnessed timesheets being "massaged" to fill billable targets, sometimes it's deliberate, sometimes it is the pressure from the partners, sometimes it's greed to achieve the bonus target and

..........sometimes it's a simple case of having recorded 4 hours specifically against clients and worked on another case for the rest of the day so 4 hours is allocated against that file. The hard fact is that the 4 hour allocation is wholly improper because it fails to take into account the administration time and frankly the downtime and wasted time during the day that the solicitor has incurred. There's a real difference between 4 intensive hours spend studying a file and 8 half-hour slots studying the file, whilst being interrupted by colleagues, the phone, coffee and comfort breaks etc. In many law firms, clients are paying for inefficiencies.

 

  • We also don't believe that you should pay for tired, exhausted and inefficient solicitors.

 

TYPES OF FEES


  • Budget Fees
    From 2010, We've tried to get away from the hourly charge where it is feasible to do so. We can work on budget fees. This means you set a budget. We agree what we're doing for that budget. You pay the budget and we get on with it.  In this way you can limit your costs if negotiations go on for longer than expected.

  • Fixed and Staged Fees
    These are a good solution for contacts and some other areas of legal advice and representation.
    Obviously some areas are not suitable for Fixed and Staged Fees such as when you're negotiating and need to ring us for advice, or when we're trying to negotiate with another party.
    For negotiations and telephone advice, we have usually to charge an hourly fee as we have no idea how much advice you need or how long negotiations will take.
    We can even limit telephone advice to the owner of the business or named individuals.


  • Contingency Fees (backed by ATE insurance)
    Subject to merits assessment and full prior disclosure, we can take fees on a contingency (often known as no-win no-fee. This is subject to an "assessment of the case" test and ATE (After the Event) insurance that protects you from costs awards1.

  • Contract Value-Related Fees:
    On larger contracts, where there are numerous schedules to be written, and copious negotiations to be carried out, it is often impossible for the client to have certainty about the costs up front. We carry out work based on the value of the contract. Tell us what the value of the contract is and the type of contract needed and we'll give you a fee based on the value of the contract. You have certainty from day one and we take the risk on overruns.


  • Monthly Retainers
    This is a way to spread your legal cost over the year. It is a minimum 1 year term and like your mobile phone. You pay a set monthly fee and get a certain amount of free legal work within that fee. If you exceed the hours, there is an additional fee (covered by realtime notification) and if you don't use the hours, they're carried forwards into the next month2. (Subject to reasonable use and usage limitations).

  • Per Item Fees
    For regular clients where we have a track record of average time, we can provide a per item fee, whether for contract drafting, IP clearance etc.


  • InHouse Counsel Support
    We also have an “in-house counsel support facility” which offers a service either hand-holding in-house counsel or taking the place of in-house counsel for companies not able to afford their own full-time in-house counsel. This is on a retainer basis and offers support for contract negotiating and drafting, tracking of commercial contracts, obligations, exposures and timetables and a general support hotline for legal issues arising on a day by day basis.

  • Virtual In-House Counsel / In-house Legal Department
    We can provide our virtual in-house service where we appear to be your internal legal department.
    There are many circumstances where a commercial dispute needs the intervention of a different party if it is going to be resolved. The problem for many companies without their own legal department is that the only option is to use solicitors and this causes the other side to employ their own solicitors and inevitably positions are entrenched. Our service allows companies without a legal department to appear to have a legal department. In many cases, this provides you with the same protection as a letter from your solicitors but without forcing the other side to also employ solicitors to match you. The effect is usually that positions are not entrenched, negotiations can continue and the other party in the dispute believes that they are still dealing with your company.  We can also operate just as effectively as the virtual in-house team for contract negotiation and drafting as for disputes and can be seconded to your company for the day so that we can attend negotiation meetings as part of your team.
    This also saves costs. If you were handling this in-house and the matter went to court or needed solicitors, there would be a learning curve for in-house team and a learning curve for external solicitors. With our scheme, there's only one learning curve.
    • Phones are answered with your company name such as "ABC Limited Legal Department";
    • The address for correspondence is separate from our solicitor's address; and
    • Letters go out initially on your letterhead.
    (Letterhead is a specific variant identifying that the letter emanates from your legal department all communications are cleared with you before transmission unless we have specific and defined authority and parameters).
    We can insert natural breaks in disputes or negotiations "in order to consult the MD" or "in order to consult our solicitors on a particular point".
    E-mail: VIC @ dllegal.com or call us

 

Footnotes

1 Contingency Fees are subject to contract, an initial assessment fee, and contingent upon ATE insurance.

2 Fees are carried forwards for 1 month only and expire at the end of the carried forward month.