Attorneys are experts in the law. They go through many years of schooling and many of them take on tremendous debt to accomplish this. As a result, their fees are quite high compared to other services.
A professional copywriter may charge $50. An accountant can charge $100 or more per hour. A professional web developer may charge as much as $250 per hour. But an attorney can charge as much as double that or ever more!
The standard rate for an attorney is between $300-$500 per hour. If the attorney is a very popular and successful defense attorney, they may charge as much as several thousand dollars per hour. It’s all relative.
So, this has people wondering: Are there limits to how much an attorney can charge? The answer is Yes and No. It really depends on the type of law, actually. Most attorneys are not capped on how much they can charge or make. This is because the amount that their client is willing to pay for their service is between those two parties.
In cases of personal injury, the attorney is usually entitled to a large % of the winning because they essentially only get paid if they win. It’s high-risk/high-reward for these lawyers. If they lose the case then they are literally out tens of thousands of dollars in billable hours.
Some personal injury attorneys have made millions of dollars from just one case. There are some very high profile cases where both the plaintiff and their attorney made millions.
Disability Attorney
Since this kind of lawyer is helping someone who is already at a disadvantage and is just trying to receive funds in which to live, there are caps to how much this attorney can make. They are capped at right under $10K for the life of the entire claim. This goes for back-benefits as well as future benefits, combined.
A disability attorney in San Diego has the same cap as a disability attorney in Melbourne, Florida. The federal government takes these financial caps very seriously. They want to protect already vulnerable people.
Types of Law
There are 12 fields of law in which an attorney can specialize.
- 1. Bankruptcy lawyer
- 2. Business lawyer (corporate lawyer)
- 3. Constitutional lawyer
- 4. Criminal defense lawyer
- 5. Employment and labor lawyer
- 6. Entertainment lawyer
- 7. Estate planning lawyer
- 8. Family lawyer
- 9. Immigration lawyer
- 10. Intellectual property (IP) lawyer
- 11. Personal injury lawyer
- 12. Tax lawyer
Several of these lawyers have caps on how much they can earn. Some of them make their money strictly on a commission basis while others charge an hourly fee. It is important to know what sort of attorney you need and how they bill. You will want to find out their rates in your first contact with them so you don’t waste your time.
An attorney will not hesitate to tell you how much they charge or what their commission is. They want you to know up front so that their time is not wasted either. After all, time is money.
