We know that hiring a lawyer is stressful for most people. Our clients have told us two of their biggest fears about hiring a lawyer are:
1. Worrying they hire the wrong lawyer and then can’t get out of it
2. Being overcharged for the work done or facing hidden fees
Both of these concerns are valid. Maybe the firm seems great, but things will change once you sign the fee agreement. Overcharging is a legitimate concern when legal fees are based on a contingency fee.
To help remove these fears, Resolute Legal offers a Fair Fee Guarantee. This Guarantee has two parts:
1. Satisfaction Guarantee. We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee that covers the first 45 days after you hire us. During that time, if you are not 100% satisfied with us, you can walk away with no charges or questions asked. This removes your risk of having buyer’s remorse because you can walk away without any issues.
2. Fair Fee Guarantee. Our goal is to always charge fair legal fees. Most of our work is done by contingency fee. Contingency fees are usually charged as a percentage of the funds recovered in a settlement or claim approval. The exact amount of the fee isn’t known when you hire us because it depends on how much money we get for you.
We guarantee a fair fee in two ways. First, by following the law society’s rules on charging contingency fees. And, second, if you still doubt if the fee is fair, we guide you though the process to have our fees assessed by the courts. The courts will certify our fees as fair or can order a lower fee if appropriate. That is how we guarantee a fair fee.
Understandably there can be disagreement over what makes a fee fair. Courts look at several factors when determining if a fee is reasonable, including:
- The likelihood of success
- The nature and complexity of the case
- Expense and risk of pursuing the claim
- The amount of the expected recovery
- Time spent working on the case
- The results obtained
Courts look at the above factors to decide when a contingency fee is reasonable. If the law firm obtains a fast result the full contingency fee percentage may be fair. This takes into account the amount of the recovery, the lawyer’s risk in taking on the case, and the fact that a fast result is often better for the client.
You should expect to pay the full contingency percentage if the result achieved is a claim approval. Reduced legal fees can happen with lump-sum settlements where the amounts recovered in the hundreds of thousands or millions.
We reduce our legal fees where applying the full contingency percentage would result in an unreasonable fee. A fee is unreasonable when the amount charged does not align with the lawyer’s risk in taking the case. Or where the work done by the lawyer was not instrumental to achieving the result.
