The responsibility assumed by the lawyer and the results obtained may be important factors in determining the fees. Certain routine legal matters may be handled by a legal assistant experienced in an area of the law but who is not a lawyer. You may be charged for work done by such a legal assistant. Ethical rules allow for a number of other factors to be considered in determining reasonable attorney's fees. These include preclusion of other employment by the lawyer, fees customarily charged by other lawyers, time limitations, prior relationship with the client, and whether the fee is fixed or contingent.
Most lawyers establish a fixed hourly charge for their services.
A lawyer's fee is computed by multiplying this fixed hourly charge by the number of hours a lawyer spent working for you. The lawyer then may add direct out of-pocket expenses such as court filing costs, long distance telephone charges, transportation costs, photocopy charges, costs of experts engaged in other professional fields, and the like. When retaining an attorney on this basis, you may wish to ask for an estimate of the charges for the requested services, and to request an explanation of what complications might arise and what effect the complications will have on your fee. Hourly rates of lawyers will depend upon the lawyer's experience and the demand for his or her services. Remember that only part of the hourly fee is actually for the lawyer's services, much of the fee goes to pay his or her business expenses as described above.