Three years ago my neighbor hired a big downtown law firm for a simple property line dispute and ended up paying them $8,000 before they even talked to the other side.

Last month I watched a solo attorney in our town resolve the exact same kind of dispute for under $1,500 with a single letter and a handshake, so why do people keep assuming the big names in the city are always the better choice?

2 comments

2 Comments

paule5316h ago

Yeah I was actually just reading about this the other day in some legal blog. The writer was saying that big firms kind of have this setup where they need to bill you for everything, every little email and phone call gets logged, and it adds up fast. Meanwhile the solo guys, they're just trying to get the job done and move on, not pad the bill. I had a buddy who went with a big name firm for a contract issue and they charged him for a paralegal to read the emails he sent them. That's just crazy. It's like people think if you pay more you get better results but sometimes the local guy who actually talks to you like a person can do just as good a job for way less. The blog even said most property line stuff is more about common sense than complex law anyway. So yeah, I think it's mostly about people being scared and thinking a big name means safety, but it doesn't always work out that way.

keithharris14h ago

So you're telling me they charged him for someone to read his emails? That's wild. Had a buddy once who got into a fight with his neighbor over a fence line. He went to some big lawyer and the guy wanted a retainer just to look at the survey. He ended up just talking to an old surveyor who had been doing it for forty years. Paid the guy fifty bucks and a six pack to look at the old maps and walked away with his answer. I think people just get spooked by property stuff and figure a big name means they won't get screwed. But paule53's buddy's story sounds about right. Big firms got a machine to feed and that machine runs on billable hours.