San Antonio Child Custody Lawyer,
cost of legal services
VALUE BASED BILLING: time based and flat fee billing systems
Value based billing is an invoicing procedure involving a flat fee price through a particular stage or litigation or for a finished legal product. We recommend this form of payment for many clients who express a need to know the precise cost of their represntation. Some of Vance and Whitley clients, however, prefer to be billed on a time-based system, where all time spent on any activity that provides specific value for a client problem is tracked and billed to the client at a specific hourly rate. With either system, however, we occasionally get questions from clients who have never before had a legal problem and are curious about what items they will see on an invoice.
The following is a list of items that we do not charge to clients:
- short phone calls that do not lead to immediate legal work
- update or general information short telephone calls to or from client or any activity which deals with general information about the client (i.e. address changes, billing format changes, etc)
The goal of value based billing is to ensure the client receives value for the money paid to our firm. Many clients have asked Vance & Whitley for a flat fee arrangement so they know what their bill will be before the legal work commences. When we have this request, our lawyers will decide on the best estimate for a flat fee and that will be the most the client will be charged for that stage of the litigation.This assumes, of course that the client’s version of the case is accurate, and that the case takes the anticipated path. There may be aspects of which the client may simply be unaware.
FEE SCHEDULE
We are sometimes asked for the hourly rate of our lawyers and staff. The following is our standard hourly billing rates for the firm's attorneys and staff (listed in alpha order by the last name of the provider):
- Kay Cotter--------------------------$275.00
- Bradley J Haskins------------------$450.00
- Robert J. Hayes---------------------$200.00
- Jim Mayer---------------------------$275.00
- Ann Megee--------------------------$300.00
- Rosie Ryees-------------------------$200.00
- Lisa A. Vance------------------------$300.00
- Deanna Whitley---------------------$300.00
- Paralegals---------------------------$115.00
- Litigation Support-------------------$50.00
Attorney and Staff Communications and Expenses
If a client chooses to be billed on the “hourly rate” formula, all communications between the client and our staff, including e-mails to attorneys and paralegals, are billed to the client, including telephone calls, emails and faxes. Depending upon the stage of the litigation, clients who prefer to pay a “flat fee” rate do not normally receive an invoice for these communications. All clients are charged reasonable courier, copier and support expenses.
Filing Fees and General Expenses (ESTIMATED)
Most litigation filing fees are set by the counties in which suit is filed. Deposition, private process servers and litigation support personnel outside Vance& Whitley set their own rates. Our firm has no control over these fees, but the litigation filing fees are available from most of the county district clerk web sites.