Why Are Attorneys So Expensive?

Why Are Attorneys So Expensive?

We believe in excellency as both a virtue and a compulsion. We are workaholics, both passionate and personable. We believe success is measured by action, not wealth. We believe in doing the right thing for the right price. We are family, and will treat you like family, too. We are Cameron Bankruptcy Law.

Often I am asked why we charge so much, even when we are one of the least expensive bankruptcy attorney offices in the area. This is why:

First, we do everything we can to keep our prices low and our services high. We are not the cheapest (but we are close) but IMO we offer the best and most personalized service in the area.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Education – $853,748

– Darn close to a MILLION Dollars in Education!

If you take that at 6% it comes to paying $5,119/m in student loans for 30 years!

1. It takes 7 years of school to become an attorney. Tuition, room, and board for a non-resident (at the time we were from TN) is $261,000 for four years for UNDERGRAD at the University of Tennessee.
2. Kerry is a paralegal and his undergrad, room and board cost in today’s market is $246,000.
3. It cost  Sheree That is an additional $338, 748 for her grad tuition, room, and board. BTW, it takes A LOT of work to get through law school, especially at a top law school like UNC!
   
4. Pass the Bar. This usually takes 6 months of additional study and classes that can cost more than $5,000.
5. CLE’s $3,000/yr.
6. So education is a total of $853,748 This does not include any personal expenses!

Office – CONSERVATIVELY $42,000/yr

1. Then you need to pay for office space and utilities which is CONSERVATIVELY about $22,000/yr.
2. Then you need a good website. A good website for a law firm will cost at least $5,000.
3. Then you need constant upkeep of the website and SEO, optimization, etc. at a minimum of $6,000/yr.
4. Software, furniture, office equipment, postage $4,000/yr.
5. Cleaning service – CONSERVATIVELY 4K/yr.

Advertising – $400+ per CLIENT

1. You need to advertise. Google Adwords is probably the best bang for your buck and it costs at least $40 a click. Now that is $40+ just to have someone go to your website – not call you, text you, or email you!  A great rate of return is one client per 10 clicks. This is a bit unrealistic, it is actually smaller, but for the sake of this article, the cost of acquiring a client is $400+/client!

Our Work – at least 7-30 hours per client NOT including general work, which is a lot!

1. Chapter 7 client we charge $1595. They take from four to ten hours of work by the attorney and at least three hours by the paralegal. Some take MUCH longer.
2. Ch 13s are $6,500 for five years of representation or $500 down and $100 a month. This also includes office expenses that can often reach $200. If a client drops out early we are often paid only $500 even though we have done far more work.
3. As you can see, we are not making a lot of money. Many bankruptcy attorneys make the equivalent of less than $25/h if they have a full-time job.
4. When a person calls us, we have to put down what we are doing and focus on the call. If it is an appointment, we have to prepare for the call and wait for the person to pick up the phone. A surprising amount of the time people don’t make their appointments so the prep and the wait time of 15+ minutes are totally wasted.
5. After the call, we need to document the call and then figure out where we were before the call and get back into the “groove”.  A 30-second call will put us back at least 4 minutes. If a call is particularly distressing it could take hours.  Yes, when a client is not working off a flat fee we charge in 10-minute increments.
6. Combined with Kerry making himself available for calls from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. EVERY day of the week – that is 91 hours a week he is available to you! If he was paid a minimal wage of $15/hr, that would be $90,870/yr – and I can confirm he doesn’t make nearly that!  Historically, Kerry has made more money doing children’s birthday parties than Sheree (and most bankruptcy attorneys) make doing bankruptcy!
7. To make it easier for clients, Kerry made the Bankruptcy Timeline, which is 25 pages and has had 123 different versions. It has taken an incredible amount of time.  We get paid nothing for this and much of the work we do.

So this is why we charge what we do. We try to give the best price we can afford and we certainly are not rich. No, you are not getting ripped off  – not by us anyway.

We charge $1595 for a Ch 7  – which is low. Some of our competition charges up to $3,500!
We charge $6500 over 5 years for a Ch 13 ($500 down and $100/m). The CH 13 rate is set by the district and everyone I know in this district charges the same thing and thinks the rate is too low.

Thank you for letting us share a little about ourselves.