$180 per hour to use solicitor?

Is this how much they make per hour? Is this normal pay rate, I have just help my father pay for a $5000 ( basically for around 18 to 20 hours work) bill because my mother took my father to caught.

Don't mean to offend other solicitors and lawyers out there but $180 per hour they must be making more than doctors.
 
Hiya Rex

At 180 per hour, thats quite light.

Depends on what level of work I suppose but a good soli is worth more than that on average.

Dont forget that what comes in isnt always what someone "makes", many businesses have high costs that chew 60 % or more of turnover.

ta
rolf
 
Rolf's right, in that you need to consider the overheads of keeping a business running. After all, if you were just paying for a product or service without overheads, apples would be 10c instead of $1.10 :D

My family soli charges a similar amount so it's certainly not exorbitant.
 
Hey why do people use doctors as a yardstick of income???

I started on $17 per hour after 6 years at uni. It was a pay cut from my part time job at uni!!

From Medicare:
By 2001–02, GPs’ gross fee income had declined to 4.11 times the AYE of A$46 456, while
specialists’ income had risen to 7.55 times AYE. Fee incomes reported here represent gross, not
net, medical fee income. Practice costs have not been subtracted and incomes from other sources
have not been included (GPs’ other income sources are discussed below). Many specialists have
appointments at public hospitals and receive sessional payments for their treatment of public
patients.

So lets say a city GP bills medicare $190000 pa, 50-60% will be lost in practice costs to the medical centre management, this leaves about $90K or $47 per hour for a 40 hour week, 48 weeks per year.

My last plumber cost me twice that!

Cheers
Dr Pulse
 
how about a footballer...3 kicks in a season, $600,000 or so.
$200,000 per kick.
there is so many who've gone through a season on similar stats...be it due injury or just total lack of talent.
 
G'Day

I have just sent off payment for compulsory 'Independent Legal Advice' which was charged at $300 per hour.

What was I paying for? A couple of University degrees and thirty years experience.

I was pleased to pay the bill. Another solicitor engaged through the year was incompetent to the point of incapable. At least the $300 per hour chap got the job done!

Cheers

Kristine
 
Rolf's right, in that you need to consider the overheads of keeping a business running

Oh Please!!!

I'd be more amenable to this defence of outrageous fees if that hourly rate really did encompass all their business expenses... when you get a bill that includes photocopying at 65c a sheet and $10 for the phone call where you left a message for the solicitor to call you back (and he charged for the time spent on the call back)..

The legal profession has run riot with their fees in the past 50 years.. when a marriage breakdown occurs or a dispute between business partners arise these greedy, money grabbing monsters cackle in delight and sharpen their pencils in anticipation of the exorbitant billing they can undertake... and worst still they seem to encourage courses of action that INCREASE the conflict between disputing parties.. they giggle and black-slap each other in delight when that OH SO THREATENING and clever letter they sent to "the other party" results in that individual engaging a solicitor for themselves.. the feeding frenzy is on, like sharks gorging themselves on a bloated whale carcass the solicitors swim about in an orgy of expenses and billable hours. Swilling chardonnay over lunch and swapping tales of "divorces from hell" etc they pat each other on the back and swap grandiloquent compliments on "how that legal wig and robe makes you look so handsome!"

As a society, it disappoints me that our legal system has become the carefree plaything of the legal profession. It would please me greatly if the whole profession was dumped and each person who found cause to be involved in the legal system was provided with a government appointed and funded “advocate” to guide them.

What an utterly loathsome, disgusting, dry-retch invoking, smelly, horrid profession, they sicken me.. horrible, greedy, nauseating profession.. hate them.
 
So lets say a city GP bills medicare $190000 pa, 50-60% will be lost in practice costs to the medical centre management, this leaves about $90K or $47 per hour for a 40 hour week, 48 weeks per year.

I've always wondered how much a GP makes. But the big bucks come when you specialize no doubt (like any job). My other 1/2 works on a hospital and claims some surgeons would make $1,000,000 p/a easy

Seems wrong to me, but who knows..
 
Oh Please!!!

I'd be more amenable to this defence of outrageous fees if that hourly rate really did encompass all their business expenses... when you get a bill that includes photocopying at 65c a sheet and $10 for the phone call where you left a message for the solicitor to call you back (and he charged for the time spent on the call back)..

The legal profession has run riot with their fees in the past 50 years.. when a marriage breakdown occurs or a dispute between business partners arise these greedy, money grabbing monsters cackle in delight and sharpen their pencils in anticipation of the exorbitant billing they can undertake... and worst still they seem to encourage courses of action that INCREASE the conflict between disputing parties.. they giggle and black-slap each other in delight when that OH SO THREATENING and clever letter they sent to "the other party" results in that individual engaging a solicitor for themselves.. the feeding frenzy is on, like sharks gorging themselves on a bloated whale carcass the solicitors swim about in an orgy of expenses and billable hours. Swilling chardonnay over lunch and swapping tales of "divorces from hell" etc they pat each other on the back and swap grandiloquent compliments on "how that legal wig and robe makes you look so handsome!"

As a society, it disappoints me that our legal system has become the carefree plaything of the legal profession. It would please me greatly if the whole profession was dumped and each person who found cause to be involved in the legal system was provided with a government appointed and funded “advocate” to guide them.

What an utterly loathsome, disgusting, dry-retch invoking, smelly, horrid profession, they sicken me.. horrible, greedy, nauseating profession.. hate them.

Hmm... ok Dunc, so you have issues with solicitors.... :confused: :eek:

I still stand by my statement that overheads need to considered here, as in any field, profession, industry or business.

If you have a beef with who charges what, take a look at the cash payments that are rife in the trades industry. Public perception may well be that doctors and solicitors are raking it in but I can tell you that there's some very wealthy tradies out there- all those tax free non-declared dollars add up to some very nice benefits lifestyle-wise. :D
 
Hi all,

When I first read the $180/hr, my imediate reaction was "that's cheap".!!

Then again we did pay a lawyer that specialises in corporate law, $700 per hour :eek: :eek: and have some quotes for work we need doing of $50,000-$60,000 plus extra costs:eek: :eek: :rolleyes:

bye
 
What an utterly loathsome, disgusting, dry-retch invoking, smelly, horrid profession, they sicken me.. horrible, greedy, nauseating profession.. hate them.
If I hadn't read the preceding, I would have said it was the banks.

I have been charged 15c per debit transaction for EFTPOS for the last 2 years. I have a three year contract, and there is a $500 exit fee if I break my side of the contract.

But they have changed their fees from 15c to 31c per transaction. On my sales, my annual fees have gone from $3K to $6K.

Why?

Because banks used to be able to charge each other an interbank transaction charge. Wesuck charges Rarewealth a charge, and vice versa. The charges were essentially revenue neutral. But now that interbank charge has been ruled invalid- so the banks are charging the customer.

By comparison, lawyers are angels.
 
We liase with solicitors on a regular basis, they charge $300 to $500 per hour. Their advice......priceless!!!!! We would not have a successful business model without them. To me it is an investment not an expense (we use their advice to make money)

Paying solicitors for a marriage dispute however is another matter. It is NOT an investment just a waste of money, you are using their advise to LOOSE money. I would rather focus my energy into staying happily married :D
 
Public perception may well be that doctors and solicitors are raking it in but I can tell you that there's some very wealthy tradies out there- all those tax free non-declared dollars add up to some very nice benefits lifestyle-wise. :D
Jacque, how do you back a statement like that up,you have no idea how the system works the only way any trades person does not matter what trade gets out of life's gutter is through doing over 100 hours per week
and then hope that at the end of the month they get paid,unlike the real estate game........willair.
 
how about a footballer...3 kicks in a season, $600,000 or so.
$200,000 per kick.
there is so many who've gone through a season on similar stats...be it due injury or just total lack of talent.

Great Point.

Is it not amazing that a doctor, lawyer, judge, CEO are ridiculed for charging $$$$ an hour despite massive costs to operate, years of training, risk and intelligence in the first place.

But no-one complains when say a footballer, cricketer, racing car driver, or boxer gets $$$$$ for a lot less risk of litigation, training, oncosts and and in some cases intelligence.:confused:

Peter 14.7
 
My old accountant once charged me $500 +GST, for her and her business partner, for a one-hour meeting, where my one and only question was not answered.:mad:

Solution: changed accountants.

There are good and bad people in every profession. So choose wisely and check out the fees before engaging. Sometimes a high fee for brilliant advice can save you a motza. Sometimes one pays peanuts for monkeys. If you don't want to get ripped off, do your due diligence.

I have a great firm of solicitors, and I always negotiate the fee before starting the work. I get great discount rates from them, and always invite them for lunch, after settling on a property.
 
Jacque, how do you back a statement like that up,you have no idea how the system works the only way any trades person does not matter what trade gets out of life's gutter is through doing over 100 hours per week
and then hope that at the end of the month they get paid,unlike the real estate game........willair.

What I can tell you through personal experience is that the majority of tradespeople I have employed will offer a lower quote for a cash job (ie no tax to be paid). I can't recall ever being quoted a lower price for cash by a doctor, dentist, lawyer etc... So I think the facts speak for themselves.

TakeStock
 
Oh Please!!!
edit


What an utterly loathsome, disgusting, dry-retch invoking, smelly, horrid profession, they sicken me.. horrible, greedy, nauseating profession.. hate them.

Oh Dunc,

Why dont you come right out and tell us what you REALLY think about them?:D


I just paid $350 an hour.
However the bloke did alert me to a clause I should put in the contract that actually saved me about $4000, in 5 years time.
So that paid for his fees really.

It is like property investing.

Renters are not just paying for a place to sleep.
They are paying you for all your past work you undertook to get to the stage of becoming a landlord.

Your education, your negotiation skills, your ability to finance it, the lot.

So as much as I dislike the legal profession and they way they conduct themselves sometimes, I use them and try to forget about the experience afterwards.:)
 
I pay (at work) around $400/hr for lawyers. This is in the area of commercial construction. The big firms can charge more than that and sometimes up to around $800/hr for senior partners.

Regards
Alistair
 
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