Syntax and Salt, which publishes 13 magical realism pieces a season, seeks submissions for Issue 2. Length: 3500 words max. Likes old stories told in a new way and new stories told in an old way, plus well executed sad endings. Pays $10/story. Deadline: June 15, 2016.
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Biannual independent arts & lit journal The Quilliad (Toronto) seeks submissions for the next issue. Publishes poetry, flash fiction (500 words or less), and short stories (generally 1000-2000 words). Send 5 poems, 5 flash fiction pieces, or 2 short stories max. Payment: $12 honorarium, contributor’s copy, and free admission to the launch party for your issue. Deadline: April 30, 2016.
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Theories of HER is an experimental anthology open to submissions of poetry, streams-of-consciousness, flash fiction, micro non-fiction (essays, opinion pieces, personal anecdotes). Theme: What it means to be, admire, and/or interact, etc. with women and/or girls. Payment (upon acceptance): $5 per poem; .025/word for flash fiction, excerpts and non-fiction (up to 700 words); $20-$35 (visual art). Deadline: May 11, 2016.
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By: Rebecca,
on 5/1/2009
Lawrence J. Fox practices law as a long-time partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath as well as being the I. Grant Irey Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania and a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School. Susan R. Martyn has taught law for nearly thirty years, first at Wayne State University in Detroit, and currently as Stoepler Professor of Law and Values at the University of Toledo College of Law. Together they wrote, How To Deal With Your Lawyer: Answers To Commonly Asked Questions. Below is an excerpt about a very sticky topic, lawyer’s fees.
Your Lawyers’ Fees Must Be Fully Explained
Q: My sense is lawyers love to charge big bucks, but don’t like talking about it much.
A: You are right there. But even before you become a client, you are entitled to a number of protections regarding fees. Your lawyer must discuss the available methods of billing - hourly fee, fixed fee, contingent fee - and the benefits and drawback of each.
Q: Tell me more about hourly billing.
A: This is the most common way lawyers charge. Each lawyer and paralegal has a billing rate. They are supposed to keep accurate track of their time, usually in fractions of an hour, and describe what they do during that time. Then, at the end of the month, the lawyer will send you a bill containing the descriptions and the important mathematical result.
Q: What’s that?
A: The number of hours time the billable rate for each individual who dedicated time to the matter all neatly added up.
Q: Couldn’t this be a great deal for the lawyer? She works real slow and I pay for every hour.
A: That’s where reasonableness comes in - and a lawyer’s fiduciary duty. Your lawyer is required to proceed efficiently and pursue only those objectives you have agreed to, following the strategic plan you two have discussed.
Q: How will I ever know?
A: You are right to ask. This system is built on trust and documentation. You are not sitting around watching your lawyer’s every move, stopwatch in hand. But if you don’t trust your lawyer, billing is only part of the problem, and you would be well served to keep searching until you find one you do trust.
Q: What’s this about fixed fees?
A: Sometimes lawyer and client can agree that the lawyer will provide all services required for a fixed fee, if the service is routine, or the lawyer and client have a large client database of experience with this type of matter.
Q: Sounds like this could be an incentive for slipshod work.
A: With any fixed fee, we’re back to trust again - and the recognition by the lawyer that a malpractice action might loom is she does not deliver quality work.
Q: And if it takes longer, the lawyer might lose interest?
A: That’s certainly possible. You’ve now identified the problems with fixed fees. But they have their place and they permit the client the benefit of budgeting for the cost of these services, which can be quite reassuring in the right circumstances. So the ethics rules generally permit them, except in one instance.
Q: What’s that?
A: May jurisdictions prohibit fixed fees in situations in which the lawyer is hired by an insurance company to represent an insured who is the real client. The worry is that the lawyer’s professional independence will be compromised by the arrangement, so rather than worry about it, fixed fees are just prohibited.
Q: I’ve also heard about contingent fees. How do they work?
A: These are arrangements that we say hold the keys to the courthouse door for so many who could not otherwise afford lawyers.
Q: How’s that?
A: Under a contingent fee arrangement, the lawyer collects a fee only if the client has a recovery. And the fee is directly tied to the amount of the recovery. The more the client gets, the more the lawyer gets. Those interests are perfectly aligned.
Q: That sounds great. Why doesn’t everyone hire a lawyer on a contingent fee?
A: Well, first of all, even in cases that are appropriate for contingent fees, lawyers are required to explain the alternatives to the client since some clients would prefer to pay a lawyer on some other basis. Then there are some matters where the law prohibits contingent fees, primarily divorces and criminal matters; the former because we always hope a lawyer’s fee arrangement would not discourage reconciliation and the latter because we don’t the fee agreement to interfere with the client’s ability to accept a plea bargain.
Q: How much is the lawyer’s percentage?
A: Again, we are back to reasonable. Typically, lawyers will charge anywhere from 25 to 40%. But in cases where recovery is more certain, such a high percentage might be unreasonable. And the percentage does not have to be fixed across all recoveries. Some states have legislated what the percentages shall be in certain cases, and those percentages may go down as recoveries go up. For example, the lawyer gets one-third of the first $100,000, 25% on the next $100,000, 10% on anything over $200,000. Others have endorsed contingent fee arrangements where the percentage rises as the recovery increases on the theory that the last dollar recovered is a much better accomplishment that recovering the first.
Q: So under a contingent fee, I get my lawyer for free?
A: Well, the legal services are free, if you should lose. But we haven’t discussed expenses, which includes everything from court filing fees and expert witness charges to costs for disbursements, such as phone calls and photocopy expenses.
Q: There’s always a catch.
A: That’s because the amount a client pays for every matter has two components: the professional fee and the expenses. Lawyers are allowed to include expenses in the contingent fee, which means that you don’t pay them anything - fee or expenses - unless you win. Lawyers also are allowed to charge you for these expenses separately. Either way, you have a right to bargain for and know up front what to expect…
Q: What happens if, after my lawyer and I agree on a fee, my lawyer then decides the deal still isn’t to her liking?
A: Great question. While clients can terminate lawyers at any time for any reason, a lawyer may not change a fee agreement previously entered into because “the deal” doesn’t look as good as it once did. The courts look at any fee modification with signifigant disfavor. Unless the lawyer can demonstrate that the scope of the engagement materially changed or that it was otherwise in the client’s best interest to change the arrangement, the lawyer must fulfill the terms of the original retainer.
