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. Paralegal billing rates start at $100 per hour and can go to $200 or higher depending on education, experience, and geographic region. For the purposes of this article, we will assume a $150/hr. rate. 

A virtual paralegal increases your hourly profit while lowering your client’s bill.

How is that possible? Let’s take drafting a motion for example. The attorney can either draft the motion himself, or he can have a paralegal draft it and then he can review, edit, and finalize.

Because the paralegal rate is lower than the attorney rate, even if you add in an hour for attorney review at $350, you are still only charging your client $1,250 if you use a virtual paralegal, saving them $850, or a little over 40%.

Attorney time to complete Motion: 6 hours x $350 = $2,100

Paralegal time to complete Motion: 6 hours x $150 = $900

But you didn’t lose that $850! With Opulent Landholdings’ Attorney Services, the 6-hour plan is only $338. Therefore, you just made $912 for one hours’ work! That’s a 73% Profit Margin!

Even better? You just earned 5 hours of free time and a happy client who is more likely to come back. 

It makes dollars and sense!

**Check your local, state and federal rules for billing requirements in your specific jurisdiction’s guidelines and market rates for billing.

To learn more about the benefits of a virtual paralegal, contact Opulent Landholdings’ Attorney Services today!