Most people don’t look forward to hiring a lawyer. However, there are times when you’re likely to need one. For instance, someone might bring a lawsuit against you, and you need legal defense.

You might be making out your will, or you may be buying a house or other property. You might buy or sell a business or file for a patent. In any of those situations, you want an experienced lawyer by your side.

If you do hire an attorney, you should understand the different pay structures they might implement. You don’t want their bill to blindside you once they complete the service for which you hired them.

By-the-Hour Payments

Many people feel like, when they hire a lawyer, their billing practices are confusing. That’s because:  

• You might not take the time to read the contract’s fine print
• Your focus may be on other things, like a pending lawsuit

However, you should only hire a lawyer if you don’t find their pay structure the least bit perplexing. If you don’t understand the contract, make sure they explain it to you in a way that satisfies you before you sign anything.

Some lawyers charge by the hour. That’s simple enough to understand. They’ll tell you their hourly rate, and you can decide if it makes sense for you.

When you hire an attorney, you expect them to have professional integrity. That means you should trust them when they deliver the bill after they’ve accomplished the task you assigned them.

Presumably, they will only bill you for hours they spend working on your lawsuit or whatever other situation for which you hired them. They should give you a detailed, itemized list of what they did during the time they billed you.

Contingency Payments

You also might hire a lawyer on a contingency basis. This is standard practice if:

• You hire them for a wrongful death lawsuit
• You hire them when you sue a doctor for malpractice
• You retain them for a product liability suit

In these situations, what typically happens is you approach the lawyer and explain what happened. They give you their professional opinion as to whether you have a strong case or not.

If they tell you they think you can win, and they want to represent you, you might not be willing to hire them on an hourly basis. You could lose, and then you recover no damages, plus you still owe the lawyer on top of that.

Instead, they say you’ll only pay them if they win the lawsuit for you. This is a contingency payment plan. If the lawyer fails to win your suit, you pay them nothing. It all comes down to how good they are in the courtroom.

If you hire a lawyer in this way, they’ll probably take a significant winnings chunk as payment. You can expect to pay them a good 40% of whatever money they recover for you in some instances.

Pay a Single Task Price

A third way you might pay your lawyer is if you give them a task you want them to do, and they give you a single quote as to what they’ll charge you.

There are some potential positives if you decide to do it this way. You’re not hiring them by the hour without knowing how many billable hours the task might take. You’ll know how much money you need to come up with, and you can decide whether it’s worth it before you ever sign anything.

Lawyers on Retainer

There are some companies or individuals who also have a lawyer or an entire law firm on retainer. What that means is the entity or individual has those lawyers ready to go at all times if they need them for something.

The times when you might do this is if you’re in a profession or situation where you often have to get litigious. Maybe people often bring legal actions against you, or you bring them against others.

Most private citizens don’t ever need this sort of thing. If you do, you’ll probably pay the lawyer or law firm by the hour if you ever have to call them into action on your behalf.

Now you know a bit about the different ways that lawyers can charge you for their services. If you need legal assistance, figure out which one will work best for you, and make sure not to sign if you’re the least bit uncertain or confused.