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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (74593)	2/18/2000 11:31:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 108807

Honestly, based on my own experience, and watching a lot of lawyers, it's hard to get motivated when you are working for pie in the sky, that is, a contingency fee. Working up a contingent fee case for something simple like an accident when you intend to settle is fairly pro forma, you write letters to doctors and hospitals, you tally up bills, you write a demand letter, it's fairly no-brainer stuff, so if you have a good chance of recovery, that's incentive. But if you're going to have to try the sucker, say if it's a medical malpractice case, then every step feels like moving mountains, especially when it means shelling out thousands of bucks for medical records, depositions, and expert witness fees. However, if you know that you are going to get paid no matter what, because the retainer is sitting there in your trust account, then you feel a great incentive to get to work so you can bill the client and draw down the trust account. Now, I think the question you ask is whether you might feel the incentive to take a long time so as to earn more money. I rarely have paying clients with deep enough pockets that there is an incentive to milk the case. I am always afraid I'll burn through the retainer and get stiffed, which happens a lot.