rtrapasso
Posts: 22653
Joined: 9/3/2002 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: hartwig.modrow rtrapasso, quote:
ORIGINAL: rtrapasso There is a WORLD of difference between how doctors get paid and how lawyers get paid... the doctors rates are "negotiated" and set by insurance companies, the government, etc. Not so lawyers (for the most part). Well... probably depends on the country. In Germany, I would say there is a world of difference between how doctors/lawyers and doctors/lawyers get paid. Here, there are doctors - especially radiologists - that can easily compete with or beat a lawyer who charges a high price per hour. There are lawyers (the ones whose clients can only afford to pay according to the RVG, a German law setting standard attorney fees as a function of the value of the case, not the time spent on it - of course, your client can agree to pay more, but that means he really wants that lawyer) who make significantly less than a general practicioner, set rates and all. quote:
If you negotiate to pay a lawyer $500+ an hour, well, that's what you will end up paying, most likely. If a surgeon bills you $20,000 for an operation, he may end up with 1/10th that (or less). I guess less. But that is exactly my point - from the bill, it is difficult to derive what the person gets, and that is what is being done here. quote:
EDIT: Admittedly, the lawyer will have some expenses, but i am willing to bet they are not $400/hour. Well, of course this lawyer is most likely not a poor man, and as I said at the beginning of my post - I am not going to defend the high rate or claim that it is reasonable that the market will pay that price. At the same time, I am still not comfortable with the "per billed hour" assessment of expenses (which, btw, grow with the fee you charge). If you run your own business (at least with lower hourly fees) you usually are quite aware of the number of hours you have to bill before your expenses are met and you start making money. That makes you a bit sensitive if people tend to assume they can calculate your income by multiplying the hourly fee you charge with 40-50 hours per week. Hartwig Maybe things are different in Germany, however, Mandrake is in California... here doctor's fees are set by various agencies. Lawyers fees (unless you are doing public defender cases, etc.) are not (afaik). $500+ an hour is more than anything i've ever heard of outside of high-profile corporate law, and that is the rate for the company, not the lawyer (which he made a point of saying was not the case, iirc - addition $100+ an hour for paralegals, etc). Possibly this guy is a "one off", but if he is charging $500+ an hour, he is almost definitely off the chart in being a lot higher than in the 2% top percentile. More like 0.1 - 0.2%
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