Tweet

Why aren’t there any Utah attorneys who are willing to take a divorce on contingency?

Why aren’t there any Utah attorneys who are willing to take a divorce on contingency?  The answer is very simple; it is prohibited by the rules of professional conduct that govern the practice law of Utah.

What rule(s)?  Chapter 13 of the Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.5. (Fees).  Specifically, Rule 1.5(d):

(d) A lawyer shall not enter into an arrangement for, charge or collect:

(d)(1) any fee in a domestic relations matter, the payment or amount of which is contingent upon the securing of a divorce or upon the amount of alimony or support, or property settlement in lieu thereof[.] (emphasis added) Comment 6 to Rule 1.5 clarifies the rule further:

Prohibited Contingent Fees

[6] Paragraph (d) prohibits a lawyer from charging a contingent fee in a domestic relations matter when payment is contingent upon the securing of a divorce or upon the amount of alimony or support or property settlement to be obtained. This provision does not preclude a contract for a contingent fee for legal representation in connection with the recovery of post-judgment balances due under support, alimony or other financial orders because such contracts do not implicate the same policy concerns.

So if you are frustrated because you cannot find a Utah attorney who won’t take your divorce case on contingency, it isn’t the attorney’s fault.  Even if the attorney were willing to take the case on contingency, he couldn’t because the rules of the legal profession prohibit it.  There are, however, many creative ways to finance your divorce case.  Click here to see that article.

Having trouble figuring out how you can pay for a divorce attorney?

No job?  No savings?  No credit?  There are other, creative ways to finance your divorce case in Utah:

1.            Post-dated checks (just remember, your attorney isn’t stupid, and if you think writing four, $1,000 post-dated checks will fool the attorney into doing $4,000-worth of work when you don’t have $4,000, think again).

2.            Save Up and Pay a Flat Fee:

a.            Pay a flat fee only if you and the attorney know what the whole charge will be in advance.  To know that:

i.              Know the numbers, i.e. know what the real, fair costs will be in a case like yours;

ii.             Know that the attorney has requisite expertise for your case

iii.            Know what your legal problem is/isn’t; know the case/issues and make sure your attorney knows and understands all of this too;

iv.           Know whose problem is whose; the attorney is not responsible for your problems (he is responsible to help you, as best he/she can, try to solve them; the attorney is not responsible for bearing the client’s risk).

b.            Flat Fee Milestones.  Frequently, your attorney cannot predict how much a case will cost because he cannot know or control the future and what happens in it.  But I can charge you $A to review your case, review your evidence and witnesses and develop a game plan.  Then I can tell you that it will cost $B to get through temporary orders; then once we see where we are after temporary orders, I can tell you it will cost $C to prepare for trial, and then I can tell you it will cost $D for trial.

c.             Or the attorney can say, well, I was able to give you flat fees for milestones A through C, but now I know we have a wildcard judge, or I don’t know if we can count on our witnesses, or some other unknown quantity makes accurate prediction difficult.  So now I must bill hourly from this point on, or at least from this point until I can make a confident prediction to give you a flat fee.

3.            Collateralized Fee Agreement

a.            If you don’t have the cash to pay a retainer, but do have something of value that you may not need or may not care about parting with if push comes to show (a boat  or a gold watch, etc.), put that up to secure payment of the attorney’s fee.  If you don’t pay, the attorney sells the collateral to ensure his fee is paid.

b.            Now because you’re not paying the attorney cash or its equivalent, you may have to pay more to ensure the attorney is willing to collateralize his fees.  That means saying, “Since I don’t have $10,000 cash you’d normally charge, but I do have a $20,000 boat, so if you’ll collateralize your fee, I will agree to pay a $20,000 fee.”

c.             Make sure you have the proper UCC forms executed and a safe deposit box or bonded warehouse for the collateral properly, to ensure it is properly secured.

4.            Get a co-signer/guarantor

5.            Think about where to find the money

 a.            Sources to tap:

i.              Your own accounts receivable.  If people owe you money but have yet to pay, get them to pay you, so that you can pay the attorney.

ii.             Your family and friends – I know it’s hard, I know its embarrassing, but if your family and/or friends is willing to help, accept it.

6.          Pawn shop

a.            In a nutshell, here’s how pawn shops work:  you bring your gold watch that is worth $3,000 to the pawn shop; pawn shop offers to pay you $1,500 to pawn it and hold it for 30 days before it is sold.  If you can pay back the $1,500, plus interest, then you get the gold watch back.

 b.            Pawn shops are not dens of inequity.  They are a very viable means of getting credit if you cannot qualify for a bank loan or credit card.

7.          Real Estate Hard Money Lenders

a.            Real estate hard money lenders are essentially a real estate pawn broker.  Granted, their interest rates are extremely high, but if you need the money for an attorney more than you need to avoid paying high interest, pledging your real estate to a hard money lender to get a loan isn’t a bad idea.

8.          Barter

 a.            If you don’t have money, but you could paint an attorney’s house, clean his carpets, fix his car, build a deck, take a photographic portrait of his family, etc., you’d be surprised how often some attorneys (including this one) are willing to barter.

9.          Barter for someone else

a.            You may have something of value to others that is not of value to you.  If so, offer that thing to your lawyer (whether free or at a discount to the lawyer), and then the lawyer can trade it for money or goods or services, thus enabling you to retain a lawyer.

b.            Maybe you can barter with someone else to whom you owe  or with whom you want to curry favor, and then that person can do something for the lawyer in exchange for legal services to you.

10.          Pro Bono

a.            Pro bono means literally “for good.”   It is often used to mean free legal services.  But pro bono services need not be free.

b.            Pro bono, meet quid pro quo.  Quid pro quo means something for something else.  So you might find an attorney that would say to you, “I’ll handle your divorce, but would you help me answer phones, help man the lighting and sound equipment at a presentation, etc.?”

11.          Subjective write up or write-down

a.            Client can write-down the bill, conditioned upon providing constructive criticism and dealing with the attorney in good faith.

b.            Client can write-up the bill, sort of like paying a tip on top of the regular billed amount, and provide constructive criticism as well in the process.

12.          Money back guarantee, with feedback

a.            Client can demand return of the fee paid, conditioned upon providing feedback and constructive criticism, and dealing with the attorney in good faith.

 13.          Fixed Monthly Retainer

 a.            You agree to pay the attorney, for example, $500 or so per month.  The money is earned upon receipt.  If the attorney does less than $500 billable hours of work that month, he keeps all $500.  But by the same token, if the attorney does more than $500 billable hours of work that month, your fees are capped at $500.

 14.          Billable hour

 

a.  This is the most common, and usually the least mutually beneficial lawyer billing method.   As you can see from the foregoing list, there are many other alternatives.

Tweet