Best Business Practices for Photographers [195]
Copy/Fax and Other Miscellaneous Charges
You can expect to be billed for numerous seemingly insignificant expenses that are, when combined over the course of the month, actually significant. The attorney's receipt and cursory review of a fax from you will likely incur an expense. If the attorney has to make photocopies for you or your case, they'll probably cost around $0.20 per page. That might seem insignificant at first blush, but consider that over a month, those items could become several hundred dollars as a line item expense.
Many attorneys have a case establishment fee, which means that when the attorney takes a case for you, there is an initial $75 to $250 (or much higher) fee for the attorney to get you set up in his system for accounting, filing cabinet space, and such. Just as you should take the approach that whenever you are working on behalf of your client for an assignment, it should be billable (or at least accounted for when preparing your quote), your attorney will follow the same principles.
When you establish a relationship with an attorney and use him with some degree of consistency, some of these fees may be waived (as in the case establishment fee and so on). Further, there will be less time spent by the attorney familiarizing himself with you and your work if he has worked with you consistently, so savings can occur in that instance as well.
Ask Your Attorney Whether It's Economically Sound to File Suit
Sometimes one of the more difficult things to do is to not file a case. You've been wronged, you know it, and the potential defendant knows he or she was in the wrong, but is it worth it? Maybe it's a missing or illegible signature on contract language in dispute, maybe you didn't register your copyright, maybe you did but the use will be argued as the amoeba-like "fair use," or maybe your life at that point is personally too troubled to withstand the demands of your time and mental energy required to take on the case. Or, perhaps you have the best case in the world, but you don't have the resources to see the case through to the end or to a likely point where a settlement offer may be made.
Cases are decided all the time based upon economics. The suit I filed against the Textiles Company, as discussed in Chapter 20, was almost certainly settled (to my benefit) for these reasons. The attorney could not have been clearer about his client's willingness to settle being in part based upon whether I agreed to their settlement offer prior to the weekend, because the attorney would have to incur a significant amount of billable time, and these monies could instead be applied by the company to the settlement figure. Because, as I outlined, I was in small claims court and not paying an attorney, and their offer was certainly fair, I accepted. This company made their decision on the economics of the suit, not on whether they were right.
When these or myriad other potential circumstances apply, asking your attorney about the case's viability and likely outcome might net you the best counsel they can provide. Although there are a few attorneys who will salivate over taking on your case, almost all will give you objective advice, especially if you have all your ducks in a row. If the attorney doesn't take your case, it's likely he has other cases, so he's not looking at you as his next meal ticket. (Beware those attorneys who are!)
Why Attorneys Are Reluctant to Take Cases on Contingency (and When They Will)
This brings me to taking your case on a contingency—that is, for a piece of the pie. Most personal injury lawyers take cases on contingency, and this is usually because whomever they will be representing