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| The Basics | How to beat the high cost of lawyers
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You don't have to pay $250 an hour. Legal help is available for a lot less, or even free, especially if you don't mind doing a little legwork.
By Ellen Goodstein, Bankrate.com
When Amy S. wanted to file for a divorce, she couldn't afford the $200-an-hour fee one family law attorney had quoted her. With the assistance of the self-help center in her local courthouse, she purchased a packet of "Dissolution of Marriage with Dependent Children" forms and decided to represent herself.
"At first it was a very scary idea," says Amy. "Luckily, my husband and I had come to an agreement on most of the issues between us, and neither one of us felt we could afford to hire an attorney."
"I filled out all the forms with the help of the paralegal at the Self-Help Center in the Palm Beach County courthouse. She told me exactly which forms had to be filed first, explained how the process works and went over the papers to be sure everything was filled in correctly.
"I paid the $273.50 filing fee and the $20.37 sheriff's fee to have my husband served with the divorce papers. We went to the court-ordered mediation where we worked out child support and visitation. The mediator wrote up the agreement. I filed that with the court and requested a final hearing."
"I can't say it was easy, I had to do all the legwork, but I am satisfied with the outcome and saved a lot of money in lawyer fees."
Billable hours add up
Amy is not alone. It's expensive to hire a lawyer. The median hourly billing rate for law firm partners is $250 an hour and a little less for associates, $170 an hour, according to the Altman Weil 2003 Survey of Law Firm Economics. Rates vary by region, with the highest hourly rates for partners and associates reported in the Middle Atlantic region.
Many people either can't afford the expense or want to handle some legal issues on their own. Whether it's in family law, small claims, bankruptcy, real estate or a landlord-tenant dispute, there are an increasing number of alternatives to the high cost of hiring a lawyer.
Here's a sampling of alternative services you might try when you are faced with a problem that requires legal assistance.
Mediation
Mediation is a voluntary and typically confidential process in which a neutral third-party facilitator helps people discuss difficult issues and negotiate an agreement.
The parties create their own solutions. The mediator has no decision-making power over the outcome.
Increasingly people are being encouraged to try mediation to resolve almost any dispute, says Gregory Firestone, Ph.D., director of the University of South Florida Conflict Resolution Collaborative.
According to the National Center for State Courts, 16 states require some form of mandatory mediation, and 16 more have voluntary or discretionary use of mediation in cases involving divorce, child custody, small claims and landlord-tenant disputes.
"Mediation, when successful, is usually far less expensive and takes less time than litigation," says Firestone, who has been a family mediator for more than 20 years.
"The parties can maintain greater control of their lives and make their own decisions. This is especially true in family cases where parties can custom-tailor solutions to meet the needs of their own families.
"In many cases, mediation also serves to reduce the conflict between parties in comparison to litigation," he says.
"Agreements made by the people involved usually work better than those imposed by the courts. And, the mediated agreements are usually confidential, whereas what goes on in a courtroom is typically not," Firestone adds.
Costs: The costs of mediation vary widely, depending on the complexity of the case and the experience and training of the mediator. Mediators come from a variety of professions including law, social work, psychology, ministry and others. Most private mediator fees range between $100 and $300 per hour. Some courts offer mediation services at a reduced cost.
Self-help or self-service centers
A self-help or self-service center is a court-sponsored center designed to help individuals who have decided to represent themselves (pro se) without the assistance of an attorney.
These centers generally offer forms and instructions for filing family court petitions, such as divorce, modification of child support or custody, motions, complaints and responses for eviction and ejectment, as well as offer notary services and referrals to other court services.
In 1992, Maricopa County, Ariz., opened the first self-service center in the nation to assist litigants who were representing themselves, setting the model for other jurisdictions.
"We discovered that there were a significant proportion of people who were representing themselves in our courts," says Judge Rebecca Albrecht, who set up the Maricopa County project.
"It was a problem for the courts because self-represented people didn't understand the procedures and would come to hearings unprepared, expecting that we would guide them through the system, and we expected them to do what lawyers did."
"We wanted to find a way for the system to work for everybody," she says.
For the cost of the copying, self-represented people can obtain all the necessary paperwork to file with the court in a particular case. If someone comes into the self-service center and wants to file a petition for divorce, there's a series of documents that they can look at to see which ones best fit their needs, says Albrecht.
"The people who make use of the self-service center run the gamut from very low income to middle-plus income, with education from elementary school through college," she says. "The service is for everybody. We even have lawyers come in to check documents to be sure even they are providing the judges with everything they need to go forward in a case."
Self-help centers are available in most jurisdictions, and the trend is picking up momentum as many counties and states seek to meet the needs of the self-represented. Check with your local courthouse to find out if there's a self-help center in your area.
Costs: Fees are usually nominal and represent the cost to the centers of photocopying forms. Prices for forms and instructions range from $1 to $10.
Go to the Net
Court-sponsored Internet services
"Many courts have developed Web sites and are increasingly tailoring assistance to pro se litigants through Internet technology," says Madelynn Herman, a knowledge management analyst with the National Center for State Courts.
People can download forms and instructions, as well as computer programs designed to help them fill out the forms. Many court systems offer online access to court records, e-filing systems that are designated for the self-represented litigant, and even videos to orient pro se litigants to the court process or how to fill out forms.
Costs: These services are generally free of charge.
Unbundled legal services
"Unbundled is when the lawyer and the client examine the different elements of legal services and 'partner' to perform the services," explains Will Hornsby, staff counsel for the American Bar Association's division for legal services.
Consider all the tasks that a lawyer performs as part of representation. They include counseling, drafting or document preparation, investigation/discovery, negotiations and advocacy/litigation. Instead of providing most, if not all, of these tasks, the lawyer who unbundles services may provide only some of these tasks, leaving the rest of the work to the client.
"The client will do some work and the lawyer will do some work. The overall cost to the individual would be lower than full representation," adds Hornsby.
Lawyers may be retained for advice, to review documents or to discuss strategy and have the client go to court on his or her own. The lawyer might go to court for a limited purpose such as obtaining a restraining order, leaving the client to represent herself in a divorce.
"A good example of unbundled services is in the creation of a small business. An individual will go to a lawyer and get a checklist of tasks that need to be done. The client will decide with the lawyer who will do what. Maybe the client will fill out all the forms and the lawyer will review and correct them or the client will do the filing and the footwork.
"With unbundling, the client is more involved in the process and empowered to make decisions about his or her outcome and consequences," says Hornsby.
There is no specific place to go to find a list of attorneys who are willing to share a legal job and reduce expenses through unbundling. Ask the attorney before contracting for their service.
Referral services and resources for elders
Senior-citizen discounts
President Johnson signed a bill in 1965 creating the Older Americans Act. In 1992, Title VII was added to "protect and enhance the basic rights and benefits of older people," recognizing that many of the legal needs of the older population were going unmet.
Federal money was provided to local legal services organizations to provide legal assistance to those over citizens over 60 without regard to their ability to pay.
One such program in Palm Beach County, Fla., is the Elder Law Project that is run by the county's Legal Aid Society.
"Last year we served over 1,500 over-60 citizens of our county," says Bonnie Cohen, senior paralegal of the project. "Many clients were counseled through our elder hotline, others were provided advocacy and litigation was pursued on their behalf."
Typically, the Elder Law Project will handle some divorce cases (where there aren't too many assets), custody cases, adoptions, emergency guardianships, Social Security and Medicare, HMO and insurance, advance directives such as durable powers of attorney and the appointment of health care surrogates, says Cohen.
Costs: Representation is free of charge. To find an elder law program near you, contact your local Legal Aid or Legal Service organization or go to the government's Administration on Aging.
Lawyer-referral service
Many local bar associations have set up lawyer-referral services that match clients with a local attorney in the area of law that suits their need. There are currently over 300 such services sponsored by bar associations.
For a nominal fee, generally between $30 and $50, an individual can get a 30-minute consultation with an attorney who will assess the merits of the case and offer suggestions on how to proceed.
"Our attorneys are pretty good at answering all a client's questions and providing options," says Margarita Flores, director of the lawyer-referral program in Maricopa County.
"For $35, you can find out if you really have a case worth pursuing. You have an opportunity to get something off your chest and find out if there's really a legal issue to pursue," she says.
Check with your county bar association to find out what referral programs are offered. Check here for a listing of state bar associations.
Go to the phone
Legal hotlines and 'e-lawyering'
It's possible to get legal advice without ever leaving your home using either of these services.
On a legal hotline, a person can expect to get answers to some questions by phone. Whether operated by a not-for-profit legal aid society, as a facet of a prepaid legal insurance program or as a for-profit venture, hotlines typically will focus on giving legal advice and preparing forms.
"E-lawyering" goes a bit further by offering services. Legal Advice Line offers several services at flat rates. For $34.95, you can talk to and get specific advice from a lawyer in your state with no time limit to the call. You can submit questions online and get answers either by phone or by e-mail. You can have a lawyer in your state review a document for $49.95 or you can have a legal document created for you online, starting at $3.95.
Other major legal-service providers on the Web include LegalZoom.com and CompleteCase.com.
LegalZoom.com, co-founded by O.J. Simpson "dream team" attorney Robert Shapiro, offers a variety of services, including handling all the paperwork for an uncontested divorce with children for $299 and without children for $249.
CompleteCase.com is an online legal-document preparation service for divorce only. They do the paperwork and then e-mail it to you to download and print. Cost is $249.00 for uncontested divorce.
Legal Aid societies and Legal Services
These are nonprofit legal-service providers that serve a low-income population with free legal representation. These organizations can offer assistance in areas such as landlord-tenant disputes, family law matters, fair housing, elder law and more.
Funding is provided through various federal, state and local sources as well as philanthropic grants. To qualify for legal assistance, clients meet a means test usually averaging 125% to 150% above the poverty level, which translates to an approximate yearly income of $15,000 to $18,000 in a household with one breadwinner and $25,000 to $30,000 with two breadwinners.
The best place to find a legal aid or legal service organization is to check the phone book. The Legal Services is a nonprofit corporation established by Congress in 1974 to provide legal assistance to those who would otherwise be unable to afford it. The Legal Services Corporation funds programs that serve every county in every state in the United States, although they do not have offices in every county. To find a program near you, go to the Legal Services Corporation Web site and click on your state.
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