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Zero VGS posted:With the demise of the landlord thread I guess I have to ask in here Not a lawyer, but i have friends In Massachusetts who tell me that all the protections go the renter. It also sounds like a scam to me.
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Sep 6, 2019 11:23
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In your opinion, whats a typical defense attorney retainer for a 5-15 attorney firm representing a small/mid sized business for a single plaintiff FLSA or FMLA lawsuit? How long would you expect the retainer to last?
CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Sep 7, 2019 |
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Sep 7, 2019 19:47
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Probably 5-10k up front, $400/hr billable rate, and some minimum retainer balance.
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Sep 8, 2019 04:58
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10k retainer at minimum, rate depends on where the case is and how good of an attorney you need to handle it (open and shut case vs going to trial litigation), how long it lasts depends on a lot of factors
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Sep 8, 2019 18:24
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Yeah 10k up front sounds about right
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Sep 8, 2019 21:59
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Appreciate the feedback guys.
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Sep 8, 2019 22:21
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CarForumPoster posted:Appreciate the feedback guys. Are you still doing that law suit risk/chance database or whatever it was? just curious how that's shaking out
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Sep 8, 2019 23:33
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EwokEntourage posted:Are you still doing that law suit risk/chance database or whatever it was? just curious how that's shaking out He has an estimate for the cost of a defense attorney retainer for a 5-15 attorney firm representing a small/mid sized business for a single plaintiff FLSA or FMLA lawsuit. The source is a trade secret
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Sep 8, 2019 23:37
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Devor posted:He has an estimate for the cost of a defense attorney retainer for a 5-15 attorney firm representing a small/mid sized business for a single plaintiff FLSA or FMLA lawsuit. if he is over applying the trade secret privilege than he's half way to being a civil defense attorney
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Sep 8, 2019 23:41
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EwokEntourage posted:if he is over applying the trade secret privilege than he's half way to being a civil defense attorney The president has the media convinced that it applies to NDAs about loving porn stars
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Sep 8, 2019 23:45
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EwokEntourage posted:Are you still doing that law suit risk/chance database or whatever it was? just curious how that's shaking out Sorta, we’re a tech enabled defense litigation firm now but probably the cheapest one on the country. I run the tech side and my business partner runs the law firm side. Is it normal for 15% of your clients to be in or teetering on bankruptcy? Before someone calls the bar: IANAL and I do not have an ownership stake in the law firm.
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Sep 9, 2019 02:58
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CarForumPoster posted:probably the cheapest one on the country....... These two things seem to go together and I'm surprised at how low that number is.
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Sep 9, 2019 03:08
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Motronic posted:These two things seem to go together and I'm surprised at how low that number is. Yea no kidding I guess my next question for the thread is, how long in month til the firm blows through that $10k retainer? 4 weeks? 12 weeks?
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Sep 9, 2019 03:13
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Trial prep and the actual trial are the expensive parts.
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Sep 9, 2019 12:46
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euphronius posted:Trial prep and the actual trial are the expensive parts. That and discovery.
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Sep 9, 2019 15:39
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CarForumPoster posted:Yea no kidding you could file an answer and then not do anything for several months because the Court set the rule 16 conference out several months or opposing counsel could file and receive a temporary restraining order which puts your client basically out of business and your drafting an emergency writ of mandamus and blow through the retainer in a week. it really just depends
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Sep 9, 2019 22:31
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Down my street there are three buildings that all go out to the side lot lines. The one in the middle is three stories tall and has windows on the sides. If one of the buildings on the side wanted to build up to three stories, would they have to compensate whoever owned the middle building for blocking the windows (assuming the side stories would also go out to the lot lines)? For hypothetical purposes, say the side building doesn’t have to get a zoning change and can build by right. Badger of Basra fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Sep 10, 2019 |
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Sep 9, 2019 23:32
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Maybe. There's a rich case law and history behind fights over access to "light and air." Here's a two-page article from 1995 that I found in the first two seconds of googling that might give you a starting point for digging up research: https://assets.recenter.tamu.edu/documents/articles/1092.pdf
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Sep 9, 2019 23:45
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The Hancock tower and Holy Trinity Church are famous examples
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Sep 9, 2019 23:45
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euphronius posted:Trial prep and the actual trial are the expensive parts. Kalman posted:That and discovery. EwokEntourage posted:you could file an answer and then not do anything [...] it really just depends Im trying to figure out how much we’re under charging basically since we don’t do hourly billing. So I’m looking for rules of thumb for the economics of cases at other firms. I wish I could look at an Ogletree or Jackson Lewis database of time logged. We’re defending about a dozen of these so I get the procedure. While “nothing could totally happen”, at the larger firms my very small sample sizes indicate they tend to spend a $5k retainer in 4-6 weeks ~75% of the time. Is this what happens in your guys experience?
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Sep 10, 2019 03:40
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I mean, we’d have billed through a $5k retainer about 28 minutes into the team kickoff meeting. So not sure my experience is exactly what you’re looking for as a comparable.
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Sep 10, 2019 03:54
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CarForumPoster posted:Im trying to figure out how much we’re under charging basically since we don’t do hourly billing. So I’m looking for rules of thumb for the economics of cases at other firms. I wish I could look at an Ogletree or Jackson Lewis database of time logged. We’re defending about a dozen of these so I get the procedure. You need to be doing hourly billing regardless of how your charge your clients. That way you’ll know how much you put into cases vs how much you charge. Plus if you miss a chance to recover fees for your client because you were not tracking the billables that’s basically malpractice. Even contingency law firms track this stuff. No one can answer your questions without a lot more details about what types of cases your handling, the firm rates, the work to be done on the case, is it a typical case or an unusual case, etc. A 5-15 person firm could be a small firm or midsize firm depending on how you look at it (over under 10 attorneys maybe, but are all those folks attorneys?). It’s nothing like a big law firm. Is it just a small/mid litigation firm, is it a “boutique” law firm that doubles billing rates because they call themselves a boutique firm, etc. You’re really not going to find the answers you’re looking for here. The state bar for whatever state your in my publish generalized data that might help you. But honestly, you asking these questions here, as someone at a firm seeking to provide legal services and not someone looking for legal advice, is worrisome. Either your partner should be answering these questions or you both need to talk to someone in your city/state/practice field that knows what they’re doing EwokEntourage fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Sep 10, 2019 |
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Sep 10, 2019 05:07
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Your lawyer friend needs to ask his/her lawyer friends these questions at a CLE. Also he needs to be tracking hours billed, 100%. It's a huge pain in the rear end to track hours, especially if you're doing exclusively flat-fee and/or contingency work, but Ewok's right about why you do it. It lets you track productivity/profitability, and it lets you recover fees when appropriate. Sometimes a statute will award fees. Sometimes a discovery dispute will award fees. If you can't recover fees in those circumstances you're leaving money on the table. Since it's flat fee/contingency, you can probably get away with looser billing entries (track by the quarter hour or something), but just be sure you're giving enough detail to satisfy your local jurisdiction's specificity requirements. Plus tracking time helps if you get into a malpractice suit because you can reconstruct what you looked at and did to justify your actions.
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Sep 10, 2019 05:17
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Also please for the love of god tell us your firm has malpractice insurance
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Sep 10, 2019 05:19
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EwokEntourage posted:But honestly, you asking these questions here, as someone at a firm seeking to provide legal services and not someone looking for legal advice, is worrisome. Either your partner should be answering these questions or you both need to talk to someone in your city/state/practice field that knows what they’re doing Great point. Is your lawyer friend a first-year solo or something? This just reeks of you two throwing some poo poo at the wall to make something happen, rather than having an actual business plan and understanding what you're doing.
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Sep 10, 2019 05:32
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EwokEntourage posted:But honestly, you asking these questions here, as someone at a firm seeking to provide legal services and not someone looking for legal advice, is worrisome. Either your partner should be answering these questions or you both need to talk to someone in your city/state/practice field that knows what they’re doing 
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Sep 10, 2019 05:45
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Legal Questions: You Asking These Questions Here Is Worrisome
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Sep 10, 2019 12:42
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You def need to track hours so you can sue ex clients when they bail early on a contingency fee case.
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Sep 10, 2019 12:48
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Look Sir Droids posted:Legal Questions: You Asking These Questions Here Is Worrisome Seconded because jesus christ. I work in a non profit setting and we still track for fees requests, etc.
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Sep 10, 2019 20:13
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In the plaintiff side contingency world (at least in Florida), fee tracking is nowhere near as stringent as when I worked in criminal defense. Detailed records are not required under state law to prove costs and fees if you are awarded them.
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Sep 10, 2019 20:51
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Eminent Domain posted:Seconded because jesus christ. I work in a non profit setting and we still track for fees requests, etc. Yup. If nothing else, if you're sued for malpractice you need to document you worked the case.
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Sep 10, 2019 21:33
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Look Sir Droids posted:Legal Questions: You Asking These Questions Here Is Worrisome That said, I've bill hours for approximately 1 month of my, jesus christ, 10 year career. Go government.
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Sep 10, 2019 21:55
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daslog posted:Not a lawyer, but i have friends In Massachusetts who tell me that all the protections go the renter. It also sounds like a scam to me. If still entertaining the idea, bankrupt guy at least could fill out whatever that form is banks always want for loans, that lets someone else get your actual tax returns from the IRS. Even if eviction isn't contested that hard the court process alone here can take a month or more, meanwhile there are smearing poop on every surface in the house
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Sep 11, 2019 00:04
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Y’all are really somethin
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Sep 11, 2019 02:14
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sadus posted:If still entertaining the idea, bankrupt guy at least could fill out whatever that form is banks always want for loans, that lets someone else get your actual tax returns from the IRS. Yeah he pulled a Trump and refused to give me his full tax returns after he initially gave me a blurry pic of the one-pager. He also gave me a screenshot of his bank balance then refused to give pdf statements. He said I was overreaching and he wanted to keep his dignity. I told him I had to do all that to buy the place so he could do the same to lease it, but he wasn't having it. I wished him well and sent him on his way after that. First applicant I've ever had to turn down but I had an ominous feeling about the whole thing. I feel bad for his family being holed up in a hotel, but his general attitude made me pretty certain he would be a pain in the rear end tenant for the duration of the lease, and then some.
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Sep 11, 2019 10:10
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Zero VGS posted:Yeah he pulled a Trump and refused to give me his full tax returns after he initially gave me a blurry pic of the one-pager. He also gave me a screenshot of his bank balance then refused to give pdf statements. He said I was overreaching and he wanted to keep his dignity. I told him I had to do all that to buy the place so he could do the same to lease it, but he wasn't having it. Correct decision, an ANAL success story
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Sep 11, 2019 13:40
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Am I reading correctly that a lawyer is asking for advice here? Here? Wow.
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Sep 11, 2019 15:34
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It seems like today “sales tax” and “use tax” mean basically the same thing - a tax on a thing you buy. Were they ever substantially different? Are they still different and I’m misunderstanding how they work?
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Sep 11, 2019 16:36
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Badger of Basra posted:It seems like today “sales tax” and “use tax” mean basically the same thing - a tax on a thing you buy. Were they ever substantially different? Are they still different and I’m misunderstanding how they work? I think use tax is a way to recover taxes from a sale that escaped an assessment for sales tax. Like if a merchant converted an item to store use but didn't pay sales tax on it, or if you bought something over the internet but didn't pay sales tax for that transaction.
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Sep 11, 2019 16:58
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The OP links to a law school thread that is closed and links to a jurisprudence megathread that is also closed, so I'm gonna ask here and hope I don't get probed. I'm a software technical writer with a degree in technical writing with a subject-matter focus in science writing, about 20 years of experience working in enterprise software documentation. I have an interest in law, a little education in intellectual property law (just a focus on it in one of my classes at school) and have taken the time to learn the basics enough to pedantically lecture my fellow goons when they make wildly wrong statements about it (which is always). I also enjoy reading sarcastic judge opinions, and as a technical writer I'm proficient in being very very precise and careful in the technical aspects of a document when it's called for. I'm also 44 years old and kind of trying to figure out if there's a pathway out of my career and into some other career, which would still pay me reasonably well within a couple of years of getting going. Not necessarily going to law school and/or becoming a lawyer, mind you. But I imagine "legal assistant" means 70 hour work weeks and lovely pay. Does the legal realm have a spot for someone like me? I'd be willing to like take night classes for a year or two and get a certificate or something, but full-time college is out of the question. I live in the SF Bay Area, if that matters. One time I drove by a place nearby that had a sign out front saying they were forensic accountants and it gave me Ideas. I bet there's forensic legal research? Would someone pay me $100k to dig through 100,000 pages of legalese in order to figure out what the gently caress happened in some case from 1986? One of the key skills of a technical writer is translation; I interview subject matter experts and read technical planning documents and the bullshit gap-filled notes of programmers and then translate that into coherent understandable straighforward tasks, concepts, and reference for a specific audience, for example "end users" or "administrators" or "developers who already know how to do this and just need to look something up." Is there a realm of legal document poo poo around, like, reading a bunch of legal documents and then explaining to non-legal-nerd people what they actually mean? I guess a legal journalist might do that, but journalism is a lovely low-paid job for chumps these days. I'm spitballing and brainstorming here so don't feel like you need to gladhandle me, if this is a bunch of idiotic ideas I'm OK with you saying so.
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