How our fees work?

At Hamilton | Appotive LLP our goal is to provide value to our clients by offering quality legal services at a reasonable cost. We believe that it is important that our clients understand what they are paying for and why it is necessary. To that end, we typically review our billing policies with potential clients before they sign the agreement to retain our firm to resolve their legal issue.

Fee Account:

Our fee account to the client is based on a number of factors, including complexity of the matter, result achieved, value to the client, time spent, risk assumed by the firm on the client’s behalf, and whether the client is being interim billed for the work done. The relative importance of the different factors may vary from matter to matter.

 Most services performed by lawyers, legal assistants and students on behalf of the client are recorded on a time occupied basis and charged at rates that in 2008 range from $365 per hour to $60 per hour, depending on who performed the service. We encourage clients to discuss current hourly rates and fees at any time with our firm. Our account will also include the various disbursements we will have made on the client’s behalf (filing fees, courier charges, etc.).

The client may be requested to provide an advance on account of fees and disbursements. This sum will be held in the firm's trust account to the client's credit to be applied toward fees and disbursements as they are incurred.   

Contingency Fee Account:

A contingency fee arrangement is one where we would not charge you on an hourly basis but we would be paid a percentage of the amount recovered in the litigation. The only expense to the client as the matter progressed would be for disbursements made on the client’s behalf (filing fees, courier fees, expert reports, etc.). This type of arrangement allows people who could not normally afford to pursue their legal rights to do so.

Block Fee Account:

There are some matters that can be done on a fixed fee basis such as routine real estate transactions, wills, power of attorney, and incorporations. We will tell you if your legal matter is priced at a fixed rate.