Before hiring an Illinois attorney, you should always have an honest and frank conversation about how you will be paid. The method of billing a lawyer, as well as the fees, depend on the amount of time he spends working on your case, as well as the nature of your legal problem and the reputation and experience of the lawyer. Rate types are hourly, flat rate, or contingency basis.
An advance fee is a certain amount of money that you pay up front and in advance to a lawyer. The attorney puts that money in a special trust account and deducts the cost of services from that account as they accumulate.
This type of fee is generally used when a legal bill is high and the attorney needs to do ongoing work. Common practice areas that use retention fees are family law and criminal law, although many other hourly cases use them as well. Basically, an advance fee works like a debit card. You pay an amount up front, and the attorney takes that money when the job is done. For example, if you give a lawyer $ 2,500.00 and they charge him $ 250.00 per hour, you have prepaid 10 hours of their time. Typically, after working enough hours to pay the advance fee, they will ask you for more money. Retention fees are usually refundable. In other words, if you fire your attorney or the case ends, the unbilled money must be returned to you.
Be sure to ask lots of questions and read the written agreement you have with your attorney to understand exactly what its terms are. For example, the attorney may add interest or other charges to unpaid amounts in the future. Likewise, if you decide to abandon a case your attorney has worked on before she has exhausted the advance fee, you may lose the rest. If your matter must go to court, additional fees may also be required.
Also, I recommend that you ask your attorney to provide you with a monthly statement for the work you do. We have seen too many cases where a client does not talk about the work that their lawyer is billing for many months only for one day to receive a call or an email stating that the advance is gone and the client has to pay a few thousand . more or the Illinois attorney they hired will withdraw from the case. By receiving a monthly bill, you can stay on top of the work your attorney is doing and keep track of what your job is costing you.
No matter how you choose to compensate an attorney, we cannot emphasize enough that you should get any agreements you have with them in writing.