The Survey of Fixed-Price Legal Services 2020 sheds light on what Australian lawyers are charging for their services and uncovers surprising results.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers are increasingly shopping around online, including for legal services. This is forcing law firms to be more transparent with their pricing, which is changing the entire pricing model.
Interestingly, the survey reveals that, when charging fixed-fees, the firm’s return per unit time spent is higher for ‘complex’ documents than for ‘simple’ documents.
Ben Rosswick, COO of Smarter Drafter, explains, “More transparent pricing means that the old model of billing by the hour has effectively reached its use-by date. Clients really only care about the finished product, and for the law firm, clearly charging $1,000 for a service that took 2 hours to complete is better than charging the same amount for a service that took 10 hours to complete.”
That’s not to say those simpler documents should be avoided or that lawyers should only work on complex documents. The key is delivering the finished product more efficiently.
That’s where technology comes in. Document automation tools like Smarter Drafter improve quality control and significantly cut down drafting time.
More details and other interesting statistics are found in the full survey report: https://newlawcle.com.au/purchase-the-report/
