Practice Matters

The Right Host For The Small Firm

/ Bruce Cameron

In addition to the basic rules there are a few additional items to consider when choosing a web hosting provider for the solo/small law firm.

  1. The free web host conundrum – sure the price point is great, but can you live with the restrictions on disk space and bandwidth? Are you comfortable with little to no support. Remember, that “free site” is going to be plastered with advertising because the provider’s the bills have to be paid somehow.
  2. Disk space and bandwidth – don’t pay for more than you need and don’t buy less than you will use. The average web site uses 40-50 kilobytes per page, so unless your site requires large databases, provides tons of multimedia content, and vast numbers of images it is unlikely that you’ll need 10’s of gigabytes of disk space. The less bandwidth you have, the slower your site loads and the longer each visitor will have to wait to access your site. The best way to estimate your bandwidth needs is to multiply:
    1. the average/expected number of visitors your site will get in month
    2. the average page size for your web site
    3. the average/expected number of pages viewed by each visitor
    4. a small margin for error – pick something you are comfortable with
  3. Backups – the provider should provide a mechanism for automatically backup and restore your data. Also, be sure that you own your data and not the provider.

The Ideal Web Host

/ Bruce Cameron

Face it, a web site is in your future and you are going to need a web hosting provider. The problem is that there is no such thing as the universal ideal web hosting provider. However, there are really only 5 things that matter when choosing a provider:

  1. Support – if they are not there 24/7/365 move on. A good test is to email the provider and see how quickly they respond. Try asking the sales department a question about their product. If sales is slow to respond, do you think technical support will be any better?
  2. Price – this is a two-edged sword. Sure we all want that unbeatable price, but the better criteria is: is the price reasonable for the service provided.
  3. Guarantee – find a provider that offers at least a 30 day money back guarantee policy.
  4. Platforms and Applications – basically your choice of platform will come down to using either a Linux or Windows server. If your website is based on .ASP technology, then you must have a Windows host, otherwise go with the platform that supports the back-end applications your web site uses.
  5. Scalability, Reliability & Security – you want to look for a provider that makes it easy to upgrade, to add bandwidth, disk space and email accounts as your web site’s traffic grows. You want a provider that will guarantee their up-time. A proven up-time guarantee means that your site will be there when your clients try to view it, so ask for one. Finally, you want a provider that clearly states they have spam and virus filtering already installed and this feature is provided to all web sites. After all prevention is less painful than the cure.

Watch Those Fees

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment

Despite the favorable press, value billing schemes (be they flat fees, fixed fees, minimum fees with change orders) may run into Rule 1.5(b) issues if not properly handled. The thing to remember is that not all forms of lump sum payments can be classified as non-refundable.

Non-refundable retainers (or engagement fees) are “paid, apart from any other compensation to ensure that a lawyer will be available for the client if required” (see: Restatement 3rd, The Law Governing Lawyers, sec. 34, Comment e). According to the Restatement, a fee can be non-refundable if and only if the attorney is to be additionally compensated for the actual work performed. The typical engagement fee should be designed to cover the reasonable costs needed to set up a client file and prepare for the particular matter. Basically an engagement fee is reasonable if it bears a reasonable relationship to the income sacrificed or expense incurred by the attorney’s accepting the client/client’s matter (e.g. cost of turning away other clients, hiring new associates, keeping up with the relevant law).

However, if the advanced payment is to cover the lawyer’s services to the client, making that payment non-refundable will be contrary to public policy because it will compromise the client’s ability to discharge the attorney and secure other counsel. Remember, the client can discharge an attorney at any time for any reason and the attorney is entitled only to the reasonable value of services performed.

When working with fixed fees, good practice would suggest that (a) the retainer agreement list landmarks and the portion of the fee that will be considered earned at those points in the matter and (b) the fee is deposited into the attorney’s trust account until it is earned.

Value Billing; Old Wine New Bottles?

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment

If I understanding things correctly, the basic premise behind value billing is that the fee for a matter is determined by the outcome and/or type of services the client wants and the significance (value) of that outcome to the client. However, this does not mean that the client is completely free to dictate the fee received for services rendered. Rather it falls upon the attorney to educate the client as to the value provided (Ron Baker, Pricing Psychology). It is suggested that the attorney establish some measure of value. In Value Billing – What is it, and how is it done, Allison Shields suggests that the attorney:

[D]iscuss the client’s current pain or challenge – in other words, what is it costing the client to do nothing? What will it cost the client if the client delays taking action? What opportunities might the client miss? Or what would it mean to the client to reach their objective? How will the result achieved affect the client’s business or personal life?

Now, for a business to remain in business, income must be greater than or equal to expenditures. Setting an hourly rate is, in essence, a simple matter of estimating: the hours that can be billed to clients over the course of a year, the expenses incurred, and the desired profit (rate = (expenses + profit)/hours). I submit that the value billing attorney must perform a similar calculus when trying to establish value provided, after all there are a fixed number of “things” that can be accomplished in a year and a known amount of income that must be generated. Continue reading →

The eFax Option

/ Bruce Cameron

How does one handle the occasional fax? The traditional model is to buy a standalone fax machine or a multi-function printer and either pay for a dedicated phone line or a line sharing device. The other option is eFax.

eFax services convert a fax into a digital file that can be received by eMail and vice versa. The typical eFax solution provides a dedicated fax phone number that will convert incoming faxes to email attachments that are automatically sent to your eMail address. Your outgoing faxes are sent as eMail attachments to the eFax service which sends them to physical fax numbers so your outgoing faxes are received just as if they had been sent by a standard fax machine.

Based on research done by FaxCompare, the “market standard” is for a service to provide a 30-day free trial, have no start up fee or hidden fees, and to offer 24/7 customer service and both send/receive capabilities. Expect to pay about $10 per month for 300 total pages (incoming & outgoing combined) with additional pages costing about $0.10 per page.

Here is a “SaaS” model that works for me. It is less expensive than owning dedicated hardware, is more efficient since it cuts down the number of steps needed to send a fax, should be more reliable, and is more secure (faxes go to specific eMail addresses rather than sit in the fax machine until someone picks them up). Plus it is the “greener” alternative. The best part is that FaxCompare has done most of the comparison shopping already and offers a set of apples-to-apples vendor reviews.