You may think that your lawyer’s hourly rate is excessive, but it’s expensive to become a lawyer and it’s expensive to maintain a practice. Lawyers need to attend university for at least five years, and many lawyers rack up tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of dollars in student debt while they attend school, whether in student loans, a line of credit, and/or debts to family. Law school graduates are required to work as “articling students” for at least one year after graduation and they often get paid as little as $3,000 per month. It takes years to gain the experience needed to charge a high hourly rate as a lawyer.

If your lawyer works at a law firm, the partners in the firm likely retain most of your legal fees. If your lawyer is self-employed, he or she likely has a significant amount of overhead expenses, such as office rent, legal software subscriptions, bookkeeping and accounting expenses, and salaries for support staff; not to mention membership dues and mandatory insurance fees that cost lawyers thousands of dollars each year.

Lawyers also have a lot of unbillable work that needs to get done in a typical day; especially if the lawyer is self-employed and trying to run a business. It isn’t uncommon for a lawyer to work very hard from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm but only bill 2 to 4 hours.

Family law is a particularly grueling field of law that results in high rates of burnout for lawyers. Family lawyers tend to sympathize with their clients and it’s challenging to simply stop working on a client’s file because the client can’t afford their legal fees. Although some lawyers offer discounts, payment plans, or even pro bono assistance, most people who require a family lawyer can expect to incur thousands of dollars in legal fees.

As a “virtual” law firm, we’re able to keep our overhead expenses to a minimum, which allows us to offer significant discounts to our clients while paying our lawyers more for their time than they would at a typical law firm. Contact us today to find out how much you can save with one of our lawyers.