How much your local Bay Area lawyer will cost you is going to be heavily dependent on several factors. First, how much your lawyer will charge you will depend on the type of case it is. Second, the cost will be closely associated with whether or not the case is expected to go to court. And, lastly the length of the case and the external expenses, like expert witnesses, that are expected. So, there is no one pat answer to how much a local Bay Area lawyer will cost you.
However, the Bay Area lawyer you decide to go with, whether a local lawyer or one from somewhere else, will review a fee agreement with you. A fee agreement covers the services your lawyer will provide, how much those services will cost and how you will be billed. Basically the fee agreement is a contract with your attorney, so do not sign it until you read and understand it. If you do not understand the fee agreement then have another lawyer read it and explain it to you, before you sign it.
Fee agreements normally cover the cost of the initial consultation, whether you will pay based on an hourly rate or a flat rate. How much of a retainer fee, if any might be required, if a contingency fee will be paid and whether or not a part of your legal bill will be covered by statutory fee regulations.
Just because you are using a local bay area lawyer does not mean that you do not need to watch how you are being charged. Costs such as filing fees, word processing fees, telephone charges for phone time with your lawyer, court fees, costs of PIs, and many other potential fees should be outlined in your fee agreement. If they are not you could be surprised by how fast these expenses could add up.
Relatively speaking, using a local Bay Area lawyer should keep your costs down. But, when you use a local Bay Area lawyer, and if you feel you are being over charged, you can consult another local Bay Area lawyer to verify traditional charges and costs.
But, ultimately, the cost of these items is outlined in your fee agreement. This is true whether you are using a local Bay Area lawyer or one from somewhere else..
recently I have had to deal with a lot of lawyers in the Bay area. They all had very similar fee structures and were close on their hourly or flat rate costs. what you really had to watch out for was how the contract was writen up. Some bay Area lawyers included court costs and administrative fees etc.. and some did not. You really have to pay attention to the details. i am not so sure if i am really keen on working with lawyers that only want to use verbal agreements. Something just doesn’t sit right with me when a lawyer only wants to use verbal agreements.
I whole heartedly agree with you. Look at the fee schedule when you are doing your negotiation and then shope the price around. Why pay the big bucks for a bay Area lawyer unless you need to. Uhhh that is unless you are needing a really high powered and expensive lawyer.