Attorney Fees - Finding "Average"
I decided to find a study on average attorney fees in the bay area today. I thought that would be an easy thing to find on the Internet. I was wrong. Perhaps it's my Monday Morning Brain, but I couldn't find a thing. I did find a matrix done by the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington on legal fees in DC showing rates by years of experience. But I couldn't find anything local.
I'm the first to argue that a $100/hour attorney can cost more than a $200/hour attorney if the $100/hr attorney takes more time, or has billing policies like only charging down to the quarter hour. This means if you send an email asking a question and your attorney shoots back a quick email saying "Yes" you'll be charged for 1/4 of an hour's time.
So hourly rate isn't everything. But I would still like to get an idea of what the average rates are locally. I'll keep looking later, but I'm beginning to think that perhaps there's an unwritten law saying "thou shalt not make comparison shopping on rates easy to do."
