$180 per hour to use solicitor?
- Thread starter rexilla99
- Start date
Im glad im not in a profession then :O)
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Dazzling,
Sounds great to me, so where do I go to get a refund on my Professional Indemnity Insurance. You know that stuff I need to cover myself should my advice on how the law applies, be wrong.
Julia
www.bantacs.com.au
Sounds great to me, so where do I go to get a refund on my Professional Indemnity Insurance. You know that stuff I need to cover myself should my advice on how the law applies, be wrong.
Julia
www.bantacs.com.au
Probably have a chat to your super professional insurance broker....
Hey - I'm just relaying what I learnt a few decades ago....I didn't write the rules about what was considered a "profession".
Of course, it's all a bit of a furphy, 'cos the oldest profession in the world isn't anywhere on the original list - which is kinda strange.
Anyway, sorry for the sidetrack....
Let's get back to having a whinge about lawyer's costs - there's gotta be something in there for everyone.
Divorce Law...very simple, any idiot who can fill in a Centrelink form can do their own divorce for sometimes not a single cent (if you qualify for filing fee exemption eg health care card). Normally the fee's get huge because people can't agree or are just plain greedy and want to punish the other party.
As far as mediation goes, In the area i work in that is what has happened, on between 1-3% of cases actually go to trial, most settle through informal negotiations or mediations.
$265 an hour might seem like a lot, but in a lot of cases we write off thousands of dollars. For example a claim that was settle today we wrote of $10,000 in fee's because thats just the rules.
We operate on a no win no fee basis which means we carry the risk of the case as well as spending thousands of dollars on getting reports.
How's this for unfair you get injured in a car accident, not your fault you need to get a medico-legal report from not only 1 but sometimes 2 specialists, these cost between $1000-2000..now that not bad for a few hours work, 1 hour seeing a client the other dictating a report that is a few pages long.
And most of these specialists are in City area's ...so who pays for airfares, accomadation while in the city, there is a few more hundred or tyhousand that we pay.
And most of these people are already under enormous financial strain because of lost income from your injuries.
I just think people underestimate the cost of providing the services we do, and the results that a good solicitor can obtain, it can make a HUGE difference. You just want to make sure you are getting what you pay for same with any expense. As all Lawyers are not created equally!!!
Actually, most research I've read shows that "success" in a divorce (whether that is an advantageous financial settlement or custody of the children) has more to do with your gender than it does with the amount you pay your solicitor.
Jamie.
Im interested in how you arrived at this conclusion Julia.
I'm sure there are many people in emergency services, front line health and the armed forces who spend their days saving lives who might disagree with your assessment.
How did you decide accountants are the most underpaid?
Jamie.
I wish it were that simple. Most of the personal injuries cases that I do medico-legal assessments for, take 2 hours to interview and between 4-7 hours to psychoneurologically assess, and then I get to dictate the 15-20 page report; not to mention the detailed editing so it will stand up to scrutiny if I get cross-examined in court. Further, most of these clients need specialists reports from neurologists, psychiatrists, orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, etc; and not just one report from each, but usually one from their own specialists and one from the insurance company's specialists.
And what hasn't been included in the specialists' report fees, are the extremely expensive equipment and tests needed to do the assessments.
I wonder if the issue is a combination of:
1) people not from each profession not understand what the other does (e.g. I'm an accountant but I don't know what lawyers or doctors or whatever do) and
2) self justification (because you know how hard you work but don't know how hard the other guy works, you think you work harder)?
Alex
1) people not from each profession not understand what the other does (e.g. I'm an accountant but I don't know what lawyers or doctors or whatever do) and
2) self justification (because you know how hard you work but don't know how hard the other guy works, you think you work harder)?
Alex
Alexee...I think you've hit the nail on the head. Generally we look at the fees and fall over in horror...without really appreciating what our "specialist" does for us, particularly behind the scenes. One thing that is not charged onto the clients is all the research we all do in keeping up to date with the latest legislation/research/literature. That takes at least a couple of hours of reading every week. I know in my field half of what I know today will be obsolete in 3 years time.
I sort of equate this with people telling me 'yeah, for you property investment is easy'. Then I think of the hours I spend reading articles, tax, etc and all the hours I spend doing paperwork, emailing to PMs, etc, not to mention saving money. Given the complexity of most things we do today (tax, law, medicine, cars, boats, etc) I think it takes a lot more knowledge than we think to keep it all working. Not saying there aren't people who gouge on prices, but you have to keep it in perspective.
Alex
Alex
Oh man, I better not tell anyone then how much I charge per hour to pick up the phone and say "Hello..... have you tried restarting your computer? Yes, just push the power button. Can't find it? Ok, just pull the power out of the wall socket. Just plug it back in and ring back if the problem persists.... seeya <click>"
Cheers,
The Y-man
