How many of you pay your legal fees as part of a pay as you go plan? It’s expensive right?The reality is that a good lawyer with some sort of experience, should be able to give you a fee quote give or take a few pounds. They should be able to offer you some sort of fixed fee arrangement . HOWEVER there are circumstances where legal fees can easily spiral out of control and such circumstances tend to arise in litigation. Often lawyers can get away with saying “how long is a piece of string” when it comes to estimating their legal fees in litigation and this is UNFAIR because in litigation there is NO guarantee that you will win. You could easily pay £50k in legal fees and not see a dime from the other side or even have to pay the costs of the other side too! SCARY!

The good news is that there is a way to get lawyers to buy into the risk of litigation and CARE about that piece of string. In the UK there are Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs) and Damage Base Agreements (DBAs) and they are pretty good at encouraging realistic assessments of litigation, from your lawyer. Here’s a brief breakdown.

CFAs

A CFA is an agreement whereby a lawyer and a client can agree to share the risk of the litigation by coming to a financial arrangement whereby part or sometimes all of the solicitors’ fees will only be payable by the client in the event of success. So for example you might agree that you only pay your legal fees if you win (your lawyer will scream) but in return for the risk that you may lose, your lawyer might say ok but you will have to pay me an additional amount of X% of my fees if you win (you will scream BUT it’s not a bad offer as this only arises if you win). Or you may say to your lawyer I will pay you half of your fees and if I win, I’ll pay the other half. Your lawyer may say ok but, again, if you win, you pay the other half and a success fee of x% of my total fees. Can you see the bargaining power shift and settle in these examples. Each side has a stake in the litigation. You care because it’s your law suit BUT now your lawyer cares because he or she may not get paid!

DBAs

A DBA is an agreement between a lawyer and a client under which the client agrees to pay the lawyer a percentage of its damages if it wins its law suit. So for example you might agree with your lawyer that if you win your claim for breach of contract which is worth £300,000, your lawyer will get half of whatever you recover from the other side. This is  a huge risk for your lawyer as they won’t be getting paid unless you win BUT it forces your lawyer to consider if the claim is actually worth bringing. Your lawyer will be forced to seriously consider whether they will realistically get paid and therefore whether you have a decent case. You can make DBAs more complex too. For example you may say if you win £300,000 from the other side, your lawyer gets 50%, if you win £200,000 from the other side your lawyer gets 40% and if you win £100,000 your lawyer gets 30%.

Also do not forget FIXED FEE arrangements. If you are instructing your lawyer to do some standard conveyancing work or some corporate work, get a fixed fee! They do that kind of work all the time so the variables never really grant a “pay as you go” regime. If you are not in the UK I’m sure that these payment plans exist in some form or other in your country, so look it up!

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