Affordable Flat Fee Agreements With Reasonable Payment Plans
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When people are charged with a DUI in Arizona one of their first concerns is how can I pay for a quality DUI defense attorney who will get me the best possible result? Another concern is, if I do retain a private attorney exactly what would I be getting for my money?
Flat Fee Agreements to Cover All of the Case
A major concern clients have and should have is what is included in the fee agreement. Many attorneys charge an initial fee to take the case and another fee for a trial. In fact some even charge a trial fee, per each trial. Mistrials are common in DUI cases because legal mistakes happens during the trial or the jury cannot reach a unanimous verdict, which means the case has to be tried again. Some attorneys make the client pay a trial fee for each trial and so it there is a mistrial they make the client pay another trial fee and if the client does not pay the second additional trial fee the attorney drops the case. I do not do that but rather charge one flat fee for the entire case, start to finish. That includes all trials however many trials there may be. My agreement includes handling any problems with the MVD and if it is guilty, any problems complying with the sentence. If the case ends up as guilty many lawyers immediately ask the court to let them withdraw or get off the case so they no longer have to help their clients with all the problems the client may have later with the court and the MVD. I do not withdraw because I believe it is my responsibility to help my clients with all of their DUI related problems.
I believe prospective clients, particularly those who have never retained an attorney, should know before meeting the attorney what the general terms of the agreement will be. It is very difficult for people to quickly look at the agreement for the first time as they sit in the lawyer’s office and to think of all of the questions you might have about the agreement. Transparency is important for me and so I have posted a copy of my standard fee agreement online so prospective clients can review it before speaking with me. This is the link to my Fee Agreement.
Affordable fees and Reasonable Payments Plans
I offer affordable fees and reasonable payments plans individualized for each client’s ability to pay. I do not have mandatory set monthly payment amounts but rather work with each client so we can agree on a monthly plan that client can afford. Unlike other lawyers I do not charge interest on payment plans nor any fees to change the monthly payment amount. Having practiced law since 1979 I know that because of circumstances beyond a client’s control their financial status can change while the case is pending and if it does I do not think it is right to make them pay me a fee to lower their monthly payments.
For more information about Affordable Flat Fee agreements listen to my podcast or go to my page.
Fee Agreements Arizona Attorneys Can use
In Arizona there are basically three types of retainer agreements that lawyers can use. The first of which is a contingent fee agreement; under the terms of which the lawyer’s fee is contingent upon the outcome of the case. This is most commonly used in connection with personal injury cases and is unethical to use in a criminal case, and so therefore cannot be used for a DUI case.
A second type of fee agreement is an hourly fee agreement; under which the client agrees to pay the attorney so much per hour of the attorney’s time, as well as the attorneys’ support staff time, and costs as the case goes along. Quite commonly as a part of that there is a retainer paid upfront, and then the attorney pays him or herself as the work is done. These days for DUI cases hourly fee agreements are very rare and so I will spend the rest of this podcast talking about what is the most common type of fee agreement, namely, a flat, nonrefundable, earned-upon-receipt fee agreement.
A flat, nonrefundable, earned-upon-receipt fee agreement is exactly that. It is a flat fee, meaning it is for the entire representation on the case. Unlike hourly fee agreements it’s not dependent upon how many hours the lawyer puts into the case. So, for example, if the lawyer has to spend far more time than he or she thought they were going to have to spend on the case then they’re out of luck, because the fee is for the total case regardless of how long it takes to do it.
It is nonrefundable, although there’s limitations on this which I’ll talk about in a couple minutes, nonrefundable because if the case is concluded more quickly than the client had thought that does not mean the client gets a refund. They may be entitled to a refund; but basically the agreement is a nonrefundable one and so the amount of time the lawyer puts into it, by itself, doesn’t mean the client is entitled to a refund.
It is earned upon receipt which means that as soon as the client pays the fee to the attorney the money is the attorney’s money and is no longer the client’s money. Where this is different, in an hourly agreement where the client pays a retainer agreement upfront, the money the client pays upfront remains the client’s money and has to be in the attorney’s trust account until the attorney’s actually done work to earn it. On a flat, nonrefundable, earned-upon-receipt fee agreement the money is the attorney’s as soon as he or she receives it, and it goes into their operating account.
There are basically two ways attorneys do DUI cases with flat fee agreements. The first of which is a flat fee agreement for the whole case, meaning it starts at the beginning of the case or when the attorney starts representing the client on the case, and includes representation on the entire case. A second way to do a flat fee agreement, and the way that many lawyers do it, is they do the case in parts. Those attorneys in effect say, “I will start the case and I will do it up to the point where you would have to decide whether to plead guilty or set the matter for trial; and if you want to set the matter for trial that will be an additional fee for trial”. Many lawyers do that; I do not do that because I do not think it’s in a client’s best interest to do that; there are many times when we need to set cases to trial, even though we may not plan to do a trial, because it’s in the client’s best interest to set the matter for trial. Or, many times it’s in the client’s best interest to do a trial, and money considerations should not be the deciding factor. For these agreements the fine point in the trial fee is, “per trial”, meaning if there is a mistrial, often with a hung jury, the client has to pay an additional trial fee. Almost all fee agreements end representation at dismissal or sentencing and so appeals are not included.
Again I do not charge trial fees because I do not think it’s in the client’s best interest to charge trial fees. Many times when we have to set cases to trial, even though we may not be doing a trial, but it’s in the client’s interest to set the matter for trial to get a better offer. In some cases it is clearly in the client’s best interest to do a trial I do not think money considerations should be the deciding factor so I don’t do that now with any type of the fee agreement that charges trial fees.
The costs are something the client is responsible for. In the context of a DUI case costs would be for such things as those for an expert witness to review our records of testing blood, retesting blood test samples or to testify at trial.
The Arizona Supreme Court has rules that apply to fee agreements. First off the agreement must be in writing and the client must be given a copy of the agreement. This doesn’t mean the client has to sign the agreement, however, but the client fee agreement must be in writing.
The second point is the agreement has to spell out what the scope of the representation is, namely what case or cases the attorney is representing the client on. For example, if client has two cases, one in Glendale one in Surprise, then does the fee agreement cover both cases and just one? As is more common for DUI cases there is often both a criminal case and a motor vehicle proceeding arising from the same incident. Does the fee agreement cover both the criminal case as well as the motor vehicle proceedings, or not? Again the fee agreement has to state in writing what is the scope of the agreement.
Third, if the agreement is a nonrefundable, earned upon receipt fee agreement (flat fee agreement) there has to be a notice to the client in writing that they may at any time cancel the fee agreement, subject to court rules, and if they do cancel the agreement they may be entitled to a refund. This has to be told to the client in writing at the time they enter into the agreement and if it’s not in the agreement the agreement is unethical. This clause has to be in there so clients knows that if, for example, a client comes in and pays me $3000 for a case on a Monday and a couple days later they have second thoughts and want to cancel the agreement, I should not be able to keep that $3000. Under those circumstances, for a quick cancellation like that the client may not realize they can get a refund, they may think, “well I am stuck with this lawyer, even though I don’t want to stay with this lawyer, because I’ve paid him.” That is why the Arizona Supreme Court says the client must be told this in writing at the time they enter into the fee agreement.
Many fee agreements including mine have a provision that if there is a dispute about reasonableness of the fee, the agreement is subject to arbitration with the State Bar. It very easy for a client to request arbitration. They can file a petition with the State Bar saying they want to have the fee arbitration.
All fee agreements, whether they are flat fees or they are hourly fee agreements, or contingent fee agreements, are subject to a test of reasonableness. The Supreme Court has set forth the factors to be considered in deciding whether a particular fee is reasonable for the case. Once the client’s representation is over the lawyer’s obligation is to review the money actually paid by the client to make sure that it meets this reasonable test. Factors the Supreme Court says should be considered are the time the attorney spends on the case, resources such as support staff used on the case, what is the outcome of the case, how difficult was the case, and several other factors. So even though an agreement is a flat, nonrefundable, earned upon receipt fee agreement, it is still subject to the reasonableness test at the end of the case, and the client may be entitled to a refund. If a client does not think the fee was reasonable they can always request arbitration with the State Bar.
Don’t pay the same fee to another lawyer to just plead guilty – with me you get a flat, low fee and all-inclusive representation with the peace of mind of knowing if future problems do arise, such as with the court or the MVD, help is only a phone call away at no additional cost to you.
In Maricopa and Pinal Counties there are many municipal and justice courts where I represent clients charged with DUI and other criminal offenses. Those courts include the following: the Apache Junction, Avondale, Arrowhead, Buckeye, Casa Grande, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Goodyear, Maricopa, Mesa, Phoenix, Peoria, Scottsdale, Surprise and Tempe Municipal Courts and the Agua Fria, Apache Junction, Arcadia/ Biltmore, Casa Grande, Country Meadows, Desert Ridge, Downtown, Dreamy Draw, East Mesa, Encanto, Hassayampa, Highland, Ironwood, Kyrene, Manitsee, Maryvale McDowell Mountain, Moon Valley, North Mesa, North Valley, San Marcos, San Tan, South Mountain, University Lakes, West Mesa, White Tank, and West McDowell Justice Courts.
