Schmidt further advised that when considering
between flat fee billing and the billable hour that you should consider your practice area: «Flat fees are common for transactional work and criminal defense, while hourly is still popular for most litigation.
Not exact matches
Topics may include, for example, how to create a business plan, the key elements of an engagement letter, how to choose your niche, and how to decide
between different
billing arrangements such as contingency
fees, hourly rates or
flat fees.
There is also a movement toward value
billing in certain practice areas, which is kind of a hybrid
between flat fee and hourly
billing where the client pays a
flat fee for each piece of the representation.»
I agree that firms using
flat fees focus their
bills and clients» attention on solutions rather than process but this strikes me as a marketing tactic rather than evidence of a material difference
between services offered.