Factors That Typically Affect The Legal Fees Charged By Criminal Defense Lawyers

Criminal defense lawyers charge legal fees for their legal services depending on several factors

. These are, in other words, the factors that determine the fees charged by lawyers to represent clients facing criminal charges in courts. We will look into what these factors are and, at the same time, we will try to understand their impact on the final figure that will eventually have to be paid by the client to his lawyer.

Let me reiterate that, in most jurisdictions, lawyers do not charge their clients with legal fees that have been determined arbitrarily or at random. It is unlike the relationship between a seller and a buyer where the former names a price that he wants as long as the buyer is willing enough to pay for that price, no matter how steep it might get. In most jurisdictions, they adhere to the quanta of counsel remuneration, which is a set of rules that has guidelines on setting the legal fees that will be charged by lawyers for specific cases. The said rules tend to set minimums in terms of what lawyers can charge for their services.

The purpose of setting the minimums is to avoid the undercutting of professional colleagues by lawyers who set their rates too low in order to attract more clients. But it is also worth noting that though they normally do a good job in terms of specifying the minimum fees that lawyers should charge, the rules normally leave a lot of leeway in terms of the ceilings (the highest figures chargeable). This has led to the known variations that we find in legal fees charged by different lawyers. But that is not the only explanation for the variations that we find nowadays.

Before criminal defense lawyers could come up with a figure to charge their clients, they first take into consideration the type of case they will have to handle. If you compare a murder case to a petty theft case, it is obvious that he would charge more for the murder case. Compared to a petty theft case, it is more likely for a murder case to be more drawn out. The amount of research and work in this type of case would also be more substantial, considering the nature of the case. This is reason enough that would convince the lawyers to add more to the minimum amount set forth in the rules.

It is also important for the lawyer to note at which specific time or stage in the trial he was retained to represent his client and take over the mounting of the defense of his criminal case. A criminal lawyer would be more justified to charge a higher fee if he happens to have been retained by the client from the start. If he was retained midway through the court trials, his fee would be lesser.

There is no denying that the professional standing of the lawyer, including his respectability, would also have an effect on the amount that will be charged the client. It goes without saying that high-profile lawyers get to charge more than those who are still considered up-and-coming in the profession.

by: Jeff Stallman

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