Lawyers Fees Affect the Middle and Lower Class Alike

A certain 60 year old woman has been paying her attorney every month for legal fees accrued four years ago. She filed a claim with the state compensation fund office and the attorney helped her win her case to receive a $101 monthly disability payment. In the same state, a local newspaper reports that a disabled miner is still paying his lawyer for a similar action that happened 10 years ago! The attorney represented the miner in a case that awarded the miner $134 a month pension payment.

These cases clearly show how the poor can't afford legal fees. They certainly are not unusual. One claimant, whose husband was bedridden with cancer, was also on welfare. The real problem of legal fees isn't only one that applies to the poor. It riddles the middle class wallet, as well.

According to one author, because the middle class have a little money and they really have no power when it comes to things like legislative decisions, they have become one of the most common victims. Interestingly enough, the middle class also gives us most of our new lawyers. The author wonders what this means psychologically.

Usually, lawyers fees are calculated on an hourly basis. After all, doctors and plumbers charge by the hour, so why shouldn't attorneys? While it is general concensus that attorneys should be paid for their time, there is still the argument that perhaps they should not be allowed to charge such high fees for compensation-type cases where the payments are over a lifetime. Some members of the middle class can expect to make a lifetime of payments to the lawyer they used to file a personal injury suit, go through a divorce or invest in real estate.

Some unscrupulous lawyers have even stole money from the widows and orphans they were hired to safeguard. Oh, but some have chosen to steal their clients' money through gross and outrageous legal fees for services. During a five year period of time, one partnership stole approximately 60 per cent of an estate worth six figures, and they called it "fees for services". The victim was a man whom the court rule unable to manage his own affairs due to incompetency. This particular case has a good ending; the lawyers had to pay the funds back. The lawyer who brought the case against them was considered eccentric by his peers. Many other lawyers refused to take the case, but he didn't.

Media sources contribute to this issue because they use the courts as only sources to get more content. The information on fees paid to attorneys and guardians is generally available for inspection in the court's files, but the media ignore this information because it does not seem newsworthy to them. Bar associations exert pressure, as well. These associations vehemently oppose any disclosure of information that is gathered between an attorney and his client. If something hits the paper that looks damaging to the legal profession, they will quickly protest.

Even though the lawyer fees are based upon the time the lawyer works the case, the percentage of compensation is usually what the lawyer wants. One lawyer, in conjunction with his bar association, wants minimum fees applied to all cases. These contingency fee agreements state that the attorney can take a percentage of the money awarded if the case is successful. This contingency amount can be anywhere from 25 per cent to 50 per cent in personal injury and other tort cases.

This contingency fee arrangement is an American invention. England, and most of Europe for that matter, won't allow lawyers to collect contingency fees. In 1848 many workers needed help getting money for their on-the-job injuries, and that is how contingency fee arrangements were started. Because these workers didn't have the money to hire a lawyer, the contingent fee was the only way the lawyer could get paid.

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