How Legal Fees Depend Upon Statistics For Lawyers

By Kenya Campos


Legal fees can be very high and legal firms do everything they can to maximize their profits. Because most attorneys charge their clients by the hour, they have to keep very careful record of the work that they perform on any specific case or for any specific client. Every call, email or letter is meticulously recorded and the client is expected to pay for it. In order to keep these records, legal firms use sophisticated systems designed to generate statistics for lawyers.

Apart from the need to keep record of all work done on a specific case, attorneys also need to keep track of why they deemed that work necessary. They need to be able to produce a full report on any specific case quickly. Attorneys furthermore need to remain mindful of which client it is that will be paying for the work conducted at any given time.

The modern trend for attorneys is to work as part of a team in a large legal firm. Each team consists of a senior attorney, a number of junior attorneys and a number of support staff. Junior staff is obviously paid less and the firm can improve its profits by delegating as much work as is possible to such junior staff. This leaves the senior attorney to spend more time on the more complex aspects of the cases.

When legal firms bid for the business of potential new clients they also need to be able to produce accurate and detailed records. They must be able to prove their success rate, their capacity and their ability to handle a wide variety of legal matters successfully. Without this type of records legal firms are unlikely to obtain the business of large corporations.

Attorneys do not only keep records related to their own firms. Large firms keep extensive records covering rival firms. They also keep records of all important cases brought to the courts. In this way they can compare their own performance against the industry as a whole. This can help with the development of operating strategies and marketing plans. Such records are sometimes even used for recruiting promising attorneys.

Many law firms accept some cases on a contingency basis. This means that the attorney does not receive a fee unless the case is concluded successfully. The attorney normally receives a percentage of the settlement achieved in the case. In such cases attorneys use their statistics to calculate the mathematical probability of the case being concluded successfully. These calculations are complex and require a vast database of accurate records.

Detailed records also allow many firms to offer clients a fixed quotation instead of an hourly rate. This is because they are able to calculate with certainty the amount of work and effort that will be required in many types of straight forward cases. Most people prefer to know up front exactly how much a legal matter is going to cost. Flat rates can only be charged if detailed records are kept over time.

Law firms are challenging and competitive environments. Attorneys have to make sure that their time is spent in the most profitable manner possible. This can only be achieved if meticulous records are kept of all work done on a specific case.




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