One of the great things about Attorney Services is that we are designed so that, ideally, whenever we are working, you, as the attorney, are making money on that work.
When you hire Attorney Services’ virtual paralegal services, we provide you with weekly timesheets that facilitate easy bill for our paralegal’s time, allowing you to seamlessly pass on the costs for our services to your clients.
Florida Statute § 57.104 allows attorneys to charge clients for the substantive work performed by paralegal or legal assistant. If you bill hourly, the paralegal’s work can be passed directly onto the clients, and if you bill by flat fee, these hours will help you to calculate an average to help with calculating future flat fees.
These hours may also be recoverable from the opposing party in the same way attorney’s fees are recoverable.
Paralegal services that can be billed for include:
- Document review and preparation
- Legal research
- Drafting legal documents
- Discovery and investigation work
- Case management
- Trial preparation
- Client communication and correspondence
- Record keeping and file organization
- Legal database searches
- Deposition and hearing support
In 1989, the Supreme Court ruling on Missouri v. Jenkins established that law firms can bill clients for paralegal hours in accordance with the market rate, not what the paralegal is actually paid by the firm.
A paralegal's market rate is determined by several factors, including:
- Education: While a degree is required for all paralegals, some professionals will augment their knowledge by completing additional certifications specializing in one area.
- Experience performing this type and level of legal work: A highly trained paralegal with many years of experience can complete a legal task more efficiently than a brand-new paralegal, so the rate should reflect that.
- Geography: The market rates for paralegal billing in the firm's geographical location.
Paralegal billing rates start at $100 per hour and can go to $200 or higher depending on education, experience, and geographic region.
Our weekly timesheets are broken down by each of your cases and show how much time was spent on each matter. We ensure that the descriptions are clear and concise so that you and the client understand what is being charged.
We can help with entering time into your billing software, ensuring that you are billing consistently and accurately.
If you need help figuring out the best way to bill for this time, need help catching up on billing clients, or need help with weekly billing, we are here to help with that too!
Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you and your firm!
