Saving Money on Legal Fees for Businesses

Cutting Legal Fees for Corporations and Businesses.
If you’re a a business or corporation and you are interested in saving on legal fees, here are a few tips for you:
1) Look for a law firm that posts on their website their flat fees and policies. Many times you can negotiate these fees even lower, especially if you have a number of projects.
2) Lawyers really aren’t supposed to bill for reviewing documents, especially if they are short. Ask for that to be taken off the bill. They should only be billing for writing their opinion or emails.
3) Big firms charge for things like secretarial services, organizing your files, and all sorts of things. There’s nothing worse than getting a bill for $50 per hour for some secretary typing up a letter, an email or even a contract. Ask for that to be removed.
4) Fax and copy charges. Lawyers provide fax, scanning and copy services as a convenience to their clients. Some clients use these items more than others. But there’s no reason to pay 50 cents or 75 cents per page for things that are often all electronic. Some firms even bill for print outs on the network laser printer. Ask that copy, scan and fax charges be cut to what Kinko’s charges.
5) You have the right to know if the firm puts a surcharge on postage and other disbursements. Ask that all surcharges be removed from your bill. You have the right to original receipts. If you think there is a problem, just ask.
6) Look for firms that put the basics on their website so you don’t always have to email your lawyer or call him or her about simple questions such as the basic procedure for filing and preparing documents. Most lawyers like to talk about themselves and their achievements on their websites. Better lawyers put up information to help the client understand what s/he needs to do to assist the lawyer and what will happen and what the charges will be. Pay careful attention to the billing practices and policies page, and if there isn’t one, ask for one.
7) If you are doing litigation, lawyers aren’t supposed to charge for excessive amounts of time spent on legal research. They are supposed to know the basic law and then research for only the latest case updates. Be sure to ask that you will only be charged 6 hours or less for basic case updating on each legal motion or project. If the case law is complex or intricate, this may not work. For example patent cases on dismissing a case for failure to join the inventor are more complex than searching for cases on basic contract law.
8) Get your corporate fees and entities under control. Be sure you are not forming more corporations, esp. LLC’s than you actually need to accomplish a particular purpose. If you make your corporate name the same as your products and services, you can save some money by having to file for and pay the assumed name fee. Also, LLC’s cost more to file and maintain than standard corporations. Always ask your attorney why he or she is filing an LLC and if there’s no good reason, ask for a standard corporate filing. LLC’s were offered as a way to allow flexibility in the formation and start of a corporation. Some companies start off more as partnerships and then advance to full corporate limited liability. Don’t let the name “LLC” fool you. If you have structured your business like a partnership and not a corporation, this invokes the doctrine of personal liability. But if you move your LLC more toward the corporate end with corporate officers and corporate formalities, By Laws that state that no personal liability is intended, etc., then personal liability should not attach.
The problem is, you could spend a lot of money trying to prove this in court. Your lawyer should explain this disadvantage to you. A standard corporation is cheaper to file and maintain and if you follow corporate formalities and obtain adequate business insurance, then insulation from personal liability should not be an issue.
9) If you’re not making any money, or much money (more than $200,000 for each corporate officer), then consider filing an NFP. Those are extremely cheap to file and maintain. (At this current writing, $50 to incorporate and $25 per year for the annual report.) Most small businesses don’t make that much money, and if your purpose is educational, medical, or something that could be classified or directed that way, then an NFP is for you. If you want donations that are tax deductible, you will need to get a 501(c)(3) too, but that is not required.
Good luck on saving money on legal fees!