By C.U. Mmuozoba
There are different types of fees that a lawyer or other professional may charge to his clients.
These may depend on many factors which are discussed in this presentation. Below are some of the fees a lawyer may charge.
1. Consultation Fees:
A consultation fee is a kind of charge for advisory’ or peripheral professional services. It is usually charged based on the time to be spent on the advisory work or peripheral service. It covers the time spent providing clients advice, guidance, searches, inspection or other forms of expert assistance.
This fee serves as a form of compensation to consultants for their time, depth of knowledge, experience and skill invested in assisting clients to solve their problems, make informed decisions, or improve their strategies. It follows, therefore, that some of the factors to be considered when fixing your consultation fees include following:
- the time it would take you to assist the client;
- the depth of your knowledge;
- the depth of your experience; and
- the amount of your skill in the subject of consultation.
2. Flat Fees:
A flat fee refers to a fee charged upfront by a professional for his work or services. For example, when an architect or Builder charges a lump sum upfront bfor supervision of a building or other construction project, or when a lawyer charges a fee upfront for legal work, such as for litigation, or for incorporation of company, defence in criminal trials
.For example, when a client’s brief is only for the lawyer to conduct searches in a Probate Registry.
Thus, a flat fee is a pre-arranged and agreed upon between the lawyer (or other professional) and the client, and the total fee for the services (or at least part of it) is usually paid upfront before the lawyer begins the work.
Flat fees are usually charged where the facts of the brief are straightforward of simple.
But it is not rewarding in cases where the scope of work is complex, uncertain or could change significantly thereby increasing the quantum of work, time or skill required.
3. Contingency Fee:
Contingency fee refers to a fee-charging plan generally used by Claimants’ lawyers in in situations where the possible derivable compensation cannot be estimated because they are not founded on liquidated money demand. Examples include personal injury cases. Contingency fees are dependent on outcomes. Therefore, it is usually an agreed percentage of a client’s payout if the case is successful.? Thus, where the contingency fee payment structure is adopted, the client does not pay any money upfront, but he will benefit from the lawyer’s efforts if the case is won and a monetary settlement is awarded.
But if the case is lost, both the client and the lawyer are the losers.
4. Hourly rate fees:
An hourly rate fees structure refers to a situation where a lawyer charges the client for each hour (or portion of an hour) that the lawyer works on the client’s case. For example, the fee charging agreement may stipulate that the lawyer shall be paid a certain amount of fees ‘per appearance’.
Hourly rate fees structure takes cognisance of time spent on the phone calls in relation to the case, meetings relating to the case, conducting research relating to the case, preparation of documents relating to the case, dealing with relevant correspondences, appearances in court, etc.
It should be noted that the hourly rate depends on who does the work – is it the principal attorney? Is it an associate? Or is it a paralegal?
For example, the lawyer may agree with his client for a 40% of the payout if the case is won. Conversely, it means that if the case is lost, the lawyer gets nothing.
5. Retainer Fees:
A retainer fee refers to when a lawyer is paid an agreed fee upfront to keep is attent:on for the client for a given period. In retainers, the lawyer undertakes (or is deemed to undertake) that he will not work for another person against the paying client within the denoted period covered by the retainer fees. But the retainer fees is not attached to any particular case in mind. Therefore, despite the retainer fees, the client will still be charged specific fees for each case that he sends to the lawyer.”
6. Filing fees:
Filing fees refers to fees required to be paid prior to initiating a court procedure. These includes typing and printing costs, costs of photocopying multiple documents to be frontloaded, Deposition costs (i.e. costs for affidavits of verification), mailing costs, eg where pre-action notice has to be mailed to a relevant authority, fees for certifications, fees for summonses to expert witnesses (or other witnesses), fees for process servers, travel expenses of witnesses, etc.
7. Court fees:
Court fees refer to payments made to the court at various stages of the proceedings. The fees are usually paid at the point of filing the processes. They are statutory fees (i.e. fees fixed by law or other regulatory instruments). For example, there are graduated foes payable according to the quantum of claim. Similarly, in probate matters there are fixed fees that must be paid at different stages of the probate procedure.
8. Referral fees:
A Referral Fee is a fee charged by a lawyer who refers a client to another lawyer, for instance where the referring lawyer feels that he lacks sufficient skill or experience to handle the case effectively due to its peculiar facts or likely incidentals. The rationale for charging a referral fee includes the following:
(a) that by listening to the client the lawyer has spent his time and energy already, even if he is unable to handle the brief.
A retainer fee is a way by which the client and the lawyer agree that the lawyer will make himself available whenever the client briefs the lawyer. It is also a way by which the lawyer says to the client: “I will not work for your adversary against you during the period of the retainer.’
(b) That by referring the client to a more proficient lawyer, the referring lawyer has already assisted the client to get a competent lawyer without further time-consuming search for another lawyer. Thus, based on the above rationale, when one lawyer refers a client to another lawyer, the referring lawyer expectedly charges a fee to represent his passive (or is it active) assistance to the client on referral.
9. Transport Fare:
This is an amount charged by a lawyer to enable the lawyer defray travel expenses in the course of executing the client’s brief.” Some of the matters for which a lawyer may charge transport fares include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Attendance to court for litigation;
- Visit to locus in quo;
- Trips to Probate Registries for searches;
- Trips to Land Registries for searches;
- Trips to CAC Registries for certifications;
- Trips to INEC Registries for inspection of electoral materials;
- Trips to EFCC, Police formations, etc on behalf of clients;
- Trips to Correctional Facilities to interview clients;
- Site inspection visits with prospective land purchasers.
In some jurisdictions the local Bar fixes the general minimum transport fare according the hierarchy of the Courts. But sometimes too, each Law Office fixes their own transport fare for themselves. The fixing of transport fares therefore varies.
About the lecturer; Uzodimma Mmuozoba has been a kind of an intellectual ‘rebel’ with a vision. On leaving secondary school his devout Christian father urged him to enrol into a Bible School and take up full-time, life-long Christian Missionary work. He ‘rebelled’, and instead opted to attend secular educational institutions. But his plans to attain higher education were then stalled by circumstances for many years, during which period he ‘enrolled’ as an apprentice trader in Onitsha, Anambra State, under the tutelage of a master. He rose ‘through the ranks’ of apprentices and ‘graduated’ to manage a shop by himself at Onitsha for several years. While trading at Onitsha he also engaged himself in self-taught private studies in preparation for entrance examinations leading to University education. In 1989 he again ‘rebelled’ against the Onitsha business norm by closing down the business and launching out of the shop and straight into the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (Enugu Campus) to read Law – a feat then variously considered by his fellow traders at Onitsha as ‘business suicide and sheer madness.’ He obtained his Bachelor of Laws, (LL.B.) Degree in 1994 and attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos from 1994 to 1995. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in March 1995. He holds other qualifications including Master of Laws (LLM); Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE);
Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR); Certificate in Project Management from Spearhead Institute, Dubai, UAE); and another Certificate in Dispute Resolution (from Ghana Association of Certified Mediators and Arbitrators – GHACMA), among others. In 2009 he was appointed a Research Consultant by the United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan. He is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (AICMC). He is currently the Deputy Director-General and Head of Campus, Nigerian Law School, Graham-Douglas Campus, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
The author had very challenging but intellectually enriching law practice in Port Harcourt, Nigeria for a combined period of about five years (1996 – 2001) in the Law Chambers of two lawyers, M.P.S.
Ngini, Esq., and Chief A.O. Arulogun, at various times and under different circumstances. He joined the services of the Council of Legal Education, Nigerian Law School in 2001 as Lecturer Grade II, and has been rising through the ranks ever since. Over the years he has taught Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Legal Drafting and Conveyancing, Law of Evidence and Nigerian Legal System at the Nigerian Law School. His choice of Case Studies approach is the result of his experience in law practice as well as his long experience gamered from teaching diverse audiences over the years in the course of his engagements as Visiting Lecturer and Guest Instructor to some professional Institutes and Associations in addition to his teaching schedules at the Nigerian Law School. He has attended many local and international conferences and has over 30 research publications in both local and international spheres, including his first book titled Admissions and Confessions in Legal Proceedings:
Case Study Approach. He is also a co-producer of four series of legal educational films titled Low in Action. Just as in his first book, this book also uses case study techniques and illustrations to explain legal concepts and procedures to the reader. Perhaps his choice of Case Study Approach in his books (rather than the usual theory-style of law text writing) may be viewed as another aspect of his positive ‘intellectual rebellion.’
