At the Law Office of Kenneth J. Geniuk, LLC, located in a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, the hourly rate is a thing of the past. After receiving feedback from several clients and researching trends in law firm billing practices, the firm's management has decided to stop billing at an hourly rate, and instead provide clients with a flat rate structure for legal services.
The firm's practice philosophy is that the clients should always be fully informed about their case and the law applicable to their case so that they can make decisions from a position of knowledge. The
Missouri law firm has now extended that philosophy to include the attorney's fee.
"I believe, and was raised with the belief, that when one undertakes any endeavor, he or she should always work from a position of knowledge," says the firm's founder, Ken Geniuk. "By knowing up front how much the attorney's fee will be in any given case, the client can make an informed and knowledgeable decision about whether they can afford the litigation from the outset, and whether they want to hire my firm to represent them."
The firm's new flat rate structure allows clients to make an initial down payment, and then make set monthly payments until the fee has been paid in full. Also, the attorney's fee covers some of the more common costs and expenses associated with family law cases, such as the court's filing fee, service fees for serving the papers, postage and mailings, and copying expenses.
The flat rate structure aims to help clients understand the cost of their case and budget appropriately. Individuals who previously sought a family law attorney for a matter such as divorce, establishing parental rights and custody or child support may have heard this from their lawyer when inquiring about cost: "It depends." In other words, if the lawyer was billing by the hour, then the total cost of attorney's fees will depend upon how much time he or she spends on the case, which is difficult if not almost impossible to assess at the outset of any litigation.
The trouble with hourly billing is that the client is never really sure how to budget for attorney's fees because in some months the bill may be very little, whereas during other months, the bill may be several hundred dollars or more, especially if the attorney had to appear in court for a hearing, conference, or had to spend considerable time drafting motions or other documents. Also, clients may often end up spending more in attorney's fees than what they imagined the proceeding might cost. By offering a flat rate structure for its legal services, the Missouri family lawyers at Kenneth J. Geniuk, LLC hope to ease some of the uncertainties surrounding pricing. For more information on the flat rate structure at Missouri law firm Kenneth J. Geniuk, please visit http://www.geniuklaw.com/.
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