Paperwork Fees

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:23 pm

I have never in my life had to actually pay a fee to get simple paperwork. Does this actually go on in real life transactions?

A lad told me this today:

Quote:

I just finished with my attorney couple of hours ago,i am to pay him $60,000 for the paper work.

I know attorneys are fond of gouging, but what makes a lad think they can throw down such astronomical figures?

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:26 pm

He's doing that so that you will send him the money that he asks for.

You're in for a "look, I paid $60,000 out of my own pocket for this; why can't you send me $2500?" guilt trip.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

You do have to spend a lot of money on paperwork, but nothing in that league!

Master Baiter Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 166

Who is his attorney Johnnie Cochran?

Maybe it can be termed the Guymen Inflation Theory. Which is mostly driven by a lack of understanding of the Western economy.

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 8:20 pm

IRL depends what it is, of course.

Normally lawyers will charge an hourly rate for any work, if the matteris scoped in that way. Or we will charge a fixed or capped fee for a particular transaction. And these will vary totally depending on the service offered (ie an M&A transaction will be priced differently to a property litigation matter).

If one of my fee earners were charging £60k for a couple of bits of paper, we'd be into budget control issues.

-- mods feel free to remove if too lad-educational Smile

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 8:56 pm

@ Captain: I know why he's doing it, I just don't know why he thinks it's logical.

@ Jill: That's the way I figured it worked; hourly charges make sense to me. $60k for Patrick Chan to get an account change document or whatever is beyond ludicrous. It's hard not to educate these clowns. At the same time it's so easy to de-educate them, so it's all good.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Posts: 49

Craig007 wrote:

You do have to spend a lot of money on paperwork, but nothing in that league!

Depends what kind of paperwork, some documents in corporate law could cost millions to put together.

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:25 pm

Quote:

Depends what kind of paperwork, some documents in corporate law could cost millions to put together.

No the documents don't cost millions, the size of the transaction including funding may "cost millions" but rarely the fees in themselves.

Master Baiter Joined: 30 Dec 2008 Posts: 156

Tell him your (cousin / significant other / friend / neighbor) is a lawyer, and that they're willing to do the paperwork at a significantly reduced rate.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Posts: 49

TheLovelyJill wrote:

Quote:

Depends what kind of paperwork, some documents in corporate law could cost millions to put together.

No the documents don't cost millions, the size of the transaction including funding may "cost millions" but rarely the fees in themselves.

Wrong. Look into the costs of writing a prospectus for a large multi-national for example.

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:50 pm

De-education? Tell him you're thrilled at how cheaply he can get the work done.

shmike wrote:

prospectus for a large multi-national for example

Good point. Consider how much oil wealth flows through Nigeria, and that the lads' scripts are often riffing off this scale of transactions. Also remember they are probably used to dealing in the Naira, which is currently about 150 to the US dollar.

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:02 pm

@ Ubuntu: That's basically what I said. "My lawyer could have done it for like $40k.

Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:25 pm

Quote:

Wrong. Look into the costs of writing a prospectus for a large multi-national for example.

You misunderstand me. That sort of document has due diligence/multi staff involved. I'm talking about a court document which may be instantly produced.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Posts: 49

TheLovelyJill wrote:

Quote:

Wrong. Look into the costs of writing a prospectus for a large multi-national for example.

You misunderstand me. That sort of document has due diligence/multi staff involved. I'm talking about a court document which may be instantly produced.

Well of course that doesn't cost millions

Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:13 am

It comes down to 2 things.

1) He doesn't recognize the absurdity of the number--some lads really do think that all westerners are wealthy and they probably do believe that the average lawyer is earning millions.
2)The number has to be sufficiently large to make your fee look like pocket change.