subject: What Is Fixed Fee Advice? [print this page] There are lively debates in the legal sector regarding the profitability of fixed fee advice. However, clients prefer it. And as the old saying goes, 'the customer is always right'. For the consumer the benefit of fixed fee legal advice are twofold: namely; no nasty surprises and simplicity. In a recent law gazette article on the matter a lawyer states: 'The fixed fee isn't necessarily cheaper than charging on a time basis, but clients do very much value the certainty it gives them.'
Fixed fee advice is what it says on the tin, a fixed fee for a service. This may be a fixed fee divorce, fixed fee will writing, fixed fee probate and, most commonly under fixed fee, we see legal advice regarding conveyancing. The benefit for you as the consumer is that everything is incorporated into one price so if you hit a snag in your legal proceedings you will not have to pay through the nose for extra time and effort accumulated.
In business terms it is succinctly defined as such:
Cost plus contract in which a contractor is paid an agreed upon fixed fee (irrespective of the contract cost) as contractor's profit.
The risk for the lawyer is that your case takes them far longer than they could have predicted and will cost them significantly more than they have charged, but this is, quite obviously, the benefit for you as a consumer. Fixed fee advice is highly cost effective for the client.
Blended Quotes
This is another option you may be given in terms of legal fees. This is a fairly new billing system, a type of hybrid quote. In this situation your solicitor will charge hourly rates for initial consultations and then will give you a fixed fee quote once they have enough information about your requirements or case to be able to estimate more accurately the amount of time and effort that will go into the work. This works well in terms of the client being able to test the water with their solicitors and keeps the client up to date with the progress of the work so they are fully informed when they decide whether or not to accept the fixed fee quote in the latter stage of the legal proceedings.
Capped Fee
The client pays an hourly rate but the rate is capped at a certain amount that it cannot exceed but the final fee may turn out to in fact be less.
Contact your solicitor today to discuss the legal services you require and the payment options available to you.
