Fixed price legal services

Published: 2 August 2011 by Jeremy Birman

Birman & Ride is replacing traditional time costed legal services with fixed price products across the practice. 

Beloved of lawyers and accountants, time billing lacks transparency and encourages inefficiency, said managing partner Jeremy Birman.  It is unfair to clients.

"You can’t compare lawyers by their hourly rates", said Mr Birman.  "You need to know the cost of the service to decide if it is worth the outcome.

"If builders can quote a price for constructing a house, then we can tell you what you will pay for a specified legal service."

Instead of charging for every letter, phone call and photocopy associated with services such as mortgages, wills and one-off court appearances, the firm will roll the cost wherever possible into one fixed quoted fee.

Where the length of a trial is unknown, a daily rate will be quoted.  Timed charges will only apply in situations where the firm simply does not have enough information to predict an outcome with certainty.

And for complex litigation, the firm may charge a fixed fee for an extended consultation before estimating the likely costs involved.