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GAZETTE
SEPTEMBER 1984
factor. It is, however, really an attempt to standardise fees
which I think is of doubtful validity.
The
h
factor or the supplementary factor is arrived at by
taking into account such matters as the importance of the
matter to the client, the amount or value of any money or
property involved, the complexity of the matter or the
difficulty or novelty of the question raised, the skill,
labour, specialised knowledge and responsibility
involved, etc., insofar as these have not already been
taken into account in the time cost. You will recognise
these as being the factors along with time which are to be
taken into account in fixing a fee 'according to circum-
stances', and in this connection I would refer you to
paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Law Society's General Table of
Fees.
You may decide that these other factors can best be
reflected by a mark-up on the adjusted time cost — for
example, by adding, say, 50 per cent or 125 per cent. Or
you may decide that these can best be reflected by adding
to the adjusted time cost a figure geared to the value of the
property involved — for example, the table suggests 0.5
per cent of the price up to £250,000 and regressively
thereafter. I am inclined to think that the limit of £250,000
may be rather low for some matters, but this is a personal
judgment reflecting my own experience.
The final decision as to the fee is one of judgment and
this will probably take into account such matters as what
the market will bear. I would, however, suggest that if
your costs are such that the market cannot bear them you
should look very seriously at your costs and how you
carry on your operations. In other words, when you have
fixed your fee see how it relates to the time cost and
consider whether there are any lessons to be learned about
your practice or how it is operated.
Before I finish I would like to consider how one
provides an estimate of fees for a matter when there are no
scale fees and you are using a time costing system which
appears to be geared to historical records. The answer
must be your own experience of the time the matter might
be expected to take. First of all it is important to find out
exacely what you are being asked to quote for — is it the
purchase of a house on a well-known builder's estate or
the ground floor of a detached villa which is being
divided; is it a simple undefended divorce or a complex
reparation case? Each firm, however, will have its own
time cost figures and you will have to prepare your own
guidelines from your records of how long certain types of
transactions or cases take, who in the office does what
parts of the job and what return you want to get or can
get.
You may find that the purchase of a new house on a
well-known estate including missives takes about three
hours — half the work being done by a partner and half by
an assistant and so estimate the time cost to be £102. If the
value is £30,000 you might quote a fee of £250 — or you
might hedge your bets and quote a range between, say,
£250 and £300 in case there are some unexpected
problems. On the other hand, a sale of a property being
divided up in a registration county may well involve much
more time and more of the time would probably be
partner time with a higher time cost.
You will build up your sets of tables which will be
amended as costs change and which will of course reflect
what the market will bear.
The example 1 have given is in the field of residential
conveyancing but once you have established your time
recording and costing system you will have records of the
time cost of a variety of matters which can be the basis for
an estimate of any fee. You might alternatively simply
agree a rate per hour which you would charge your client.
I hope what I have written will not have disappointed
you too much — it will of course depend on what you
were expecting. If you thought time costing was a new
way of fixing lees you may have been disappointed. If you
expected to have what seemed a complex subject revealed
in all its simplicity you may have been disappointed. If,
however, you were just curious perhaps you have not been
too disappointed. I have tried to explain that time costing
is all about a new philosophy in the way we organise our
businesses to provide our professional services at a price
which we and our clients can afford. At least I hope you
have found some of what I have said interesting.
•
Wh y is
our manager's
door always
open?
ANSWER:
We could try to be funny
and say it was to let the bank drafts in.
But the truth is it's just the way we
operate. Personal, attentive service at all times.
Total access to the manager. Longer hours than
most banks. And higher interest on deposits.
They may sound like small things. But when
you add up the little things we do and most
banks don't, you'll understand why our
18-21 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. Tel. (01) 763502
3 The Crescent, Limerick. Tel. 061-319522
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