Sacramento bankruptcy attorneys charge anywhere from about $200 per hour to $900 per hour. That’s quite a difference between the two and the person considering bankruptcy would be wise to consider their options in deciding which law firm to hire. You would be very mistaken to believe that you’ll somehow receive a better service or outcome by paying an exorbitant fee.
On average attorneys in Northern California seem to be charging about $325 per hour. Some attorneys charge less and some attorneys charge substantially more.
Without question, paying some some attorneys $500 per hour may actually be a great value, if the task at hand is truly challenging and the attorney earning that high fee is worth it because of their extraordinary lawyering skills. If the task your hiring a law firm for, however, is something that doesn’t require a Clarance Darrow, an Alan Dershowitz or some other legal genius, then paying excessive fees simply isn’t a good value.
To complete the typical chapter 7 bankruptcy a bankruptcy attorney is likely going to spend about two hours of their time, from the initial interview with the client, through the meeting of creditors and then to the completion of the case. For that time spent on the case the client is typically going to be paying, on average, somewhere between $300 to $900 per hour or more.
What the consumer seeking help with their financial difficulties is going to find, is that there are law firms that are sympathetic to your financial hardship and other law firms that are ready to take advantage of you.
Its common for people considering bankruptcy to believe that there somehow is something especially complicated about their case. However, it is only the rarest of cases where the person’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy is going to require extraordinary legal maneuverings or substantially more than 2 hours time of actual work and effort by the law firm.
If your entering into a contract to pay a law firm $1800 for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy you should ask yourself whether you can afford to pay someone $900 per hour to handle your case where the attorney is likely going to simply be on auto-pilot from start to finish. If money isn’t an issue for you, no problem, but people that are filing bankruptcy, are often people who worry about how they are going make ends meet and how they are going to continue to put food on the table for their family. Don’t be led astray. Don’t be taken advantage of.
When your calling around to hire a law firm for your Chapter 7 bankruptcy, an experienced attorney should be able to assess your situation during that initial phone interview, and be able to tell you how much you should expect to have to pay. The red flags should go up if told that you will first need to come in for a meeting before they can possibly determine how much you’ll have to pay.
In the Sacramento region there are a lot of bankruptcy firms and bankruptcy attorneys to choose from. Many of the attorneys in this region have graduated from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. McGeorge is a perfectly reputable law school. They have full accreditation from both the American Bar Association and from the California Committee of Bar Examiners.
In the Sacramento region you’ll find a number of attorneys that have graduated from UC Davis School of law. UC Davis is a highly respected and its widely regarded as an outstanding law school, again with full accreditation.
A survey of the attorneys in the Sacramento region shows also that there are many other attorneys who are graduates from law schools that are not accredited with the American Bar Association. Many have attended law schools that aren’t even accredited by the California Committee of Bar Examiners.
If a school doesn’t have ABA accreditation it say’s something about the school and their level of scholarship.
You can find out which schools have full ABA accreditation or whether they’re even accredited with the California Committee of Bar Examiners. You can find this out by going to this page at the California State Bar Association’s web site.
At the California State Bar Association’s home page you can look up any licensed attorney in California. You’ll be able to confirm that the lawyer is licensed to practice in California state courts. You’ll be able to see how long the attorney has been licensed in California; which law school they graduated from and also whether or not that attorney has a public record of being disciplined by the California State Bar Association because of their conduct or ethics violation. You may want to think twice before working with an attorney that’s been disciplined for a history of failing to show up for their clients at their bankruptcy meeting of creditors.
