I am entering into a vessel lease to purchase agreement. The documents I have from the closing office were 13 pages long. I contacted an attorney for review and he would be charging me 4 1/2 hours to read the 13 pages to make sure that there is no uncustomary verbiage in the contract. While I found this attorney through Legal Access since I am a subscriber, the agreed fee was $75 an hour and therefore the attorney jacked the price up by multiplying the hours up to $300. I feel that his offer (13 pages review in 4.5 hours) should be reported to the Florida Bar. Any thought how I would place complain? thanks
At first blush, the fee seemed to be high but you should understand that as much as it is tempting to say 270 minutes is ridiculous to review 13 pages (20 minutes per page, roughly) there is something else going on--the attorney dies need to see what is involved when dealing with a vessel.
Frankly, I do not have any knowledge re watercraft, whether ownership is strictly by Fl law, Federal, or both. It would take me time to ferret that out.
Very often I have some one say to me "I have a quick question"; my response is "your question may be quick but my response may take a lot of time"
Please realize that attorneys charge by their time, not the weight of the document or number of pages involved, and you are also paying for the wisdom that comes with the document review.
I admit that I have ducked your question. If you are truly intent on making a complaint you can contact The Florida Bar on Monday, or go to thefloridabar.org for more info. But, please give my response some consideration. Perhaps the lawyer you have through the prepaid service is not familiar with maritime concerns. Just a thought.
As you indicated, its an offer--you are not obliged to accept it. Is the lawyer an admiralty law attorney? If not, 21 minutes a page with supplemental research required, for an attorney not well experienced in Admiralty is not outlandish. Some pages will require more, others less.
Asker, I do apologize because I am not going to answer your question directly, either. You query has, however , pointed out one of the glaring weakness in "prepaid legal service" as applied to "hourly" work. Lawyers are tempted (and some succumb) to adjust the time to arrive at the same fee they would have charged to a non-member. PPLS probably works OK for flat fee tasks, like writing a will, but for other fee schemes always leaves somebody unhappy, overpromised and underserved.
