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Value-Based Billing Policy for The Law Office of James W. Hart, P.A.

At The Law Office of James W. Hart, P.A., we have chosen to embrace an alternative, value-based billing policy for all of our clients. We believe that this policy will support the principle of “paying value for value provided.”

All new clients are now given the choice between our “value-based” straight retainer billing policy and a slightly modified, “value-based” hourly billing policy. All existing hourly clients will be immediately transitioned to the “value-based” hourly billing policy, unless they choose to renegotiate their existing contract with our firm. We feel that this shift in billing practices will help to further our goals to build lasting relationships with all of our clients – and will set us apart from our competition in the Orlando legal market.

We believe that if our activities are not providing real value to solving your legal problem, we won’t bill for it.

“Value-based” Billing: The Traditional Model

This is an innovative billing practice that is entirely new to the Orlando legal market. Their may be other attorneys that offer this type of billing option, but we don’t know of any. Under this system, we will meet with the client during an initial assessment to discuss the background of the case, all the legal issues that may arise, the client’s goals, and answer any questions that the client may have.

Depending on the complexity of the legal matter, we will let the client know what the initial engagement fee will be. The client will also be responsible for paying a flat monthly engagement fee for the term of the legal contract. Once the engagement fee is paid, the Firm will work with the client to develop a legal plan that will govern the scope of the legal services to be performed. In this plan, we will attempt to accurately:

Assess the nature of the legal problem;
Predict the nature and scope of the legal representation;
Create a plan for performing the legal services;
Evaluate the client’s perception of value in accordance with their legal goals; and,
Provide a budget for additional legal services to be performed.

This billing option provides a number of benefits to the new client, including:

Provides affordable legal services to all potential clients
Allows the client to accurately budget for their legal bills
Gives the client realistic expectations of the outcome of their legal matter
Unlimited phone calls and emails for no additional charge

“Value-based” Modified Hourly Billing

There are still a few clients that will wish to be billed on an hourly basis. For those clients, we have adopted a modified hourly billing system. Under this system, we will never bill for phone calls that are under 10 minutes (we love to speak with our clients without having to worry about the billing clock). Basic transactional and administrative activities (like transmittal letters, filing and other paper moving tasks) can add up to 15% or more to your monthly legal bill under a traditional hourly billing model. We treat these activities as the cost of doing business. You only pay for activities which solve legal problems or are directed at accomplishing your legal goals.

The following is a list of items that we will no longer charge to clients:

Transmittal letters which do not contain significant legal analysis or recommendations.
Short phone calls (under 12 minutes) that do not lead to immediate legal work.
Update or general information calls to or from a client.
Any activity that does not add value to a client’s immediate matter.
Any activity which deals with general information about the client.
Any activity which does not work towards resolution of the client’s problem.

Things that we do bill for:

Any activity which provides specific value to a specific client problem.

Click here to read more about why we have made the change to a value-based billing system.

Ask Us a Question

Law Offices of James W. Hart
809 Irma Avenue, Suite 3
Orlando, FL 32803

Phone: 407-839-4340
Fax: 407-386-7474

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