How much should you pay a Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney?

This is usually the question most people ask whenever they are thinking of hiring a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney. They don’t want to be ripped off and so would like to have an idea of what is a normal charge for a criminal case.

The fact is that there is no standard legal fee applicable to attorneys in any specialty. The legal fee charged by your Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer depends on several factors which include:

How Complex the Case is

Some cases like felony which has a great penalty, will usually attract more time for preparation and court appearance. Such cases will attract higher legal fees when compared to a case like a misdemeanor which has lesser penalty.

How Experienced the Attorney is

Usually, new Los Angeles criminal defense attorney with less experience will charge lower to get more clients so as to acquire client portfolios to show off, while the more experienced ones will charge higher.

But you should also be aware that hiring a more experienced attorney might facilitate a quicker resolution of your case when compared to a new attorney who charges lower. Just be careful not to lose your case in your bid to save more money by going for the lower priced attorneys.

Where the Attorney is

Of course, different attorneys in different locations charge differently, just like the price of gasoline in different locations would differ.

The Billing Method of the Attorney

There are two billing methods used by Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys to charge their clients: per-hour-billing and per-case-billing.

For per-hour-billing, the attorney will charge you for every hour they spend on your case and will show you the evidence for it.

The good side to using the per-hour-billing method is that you will pay lesser if the case gets concluded faster. On the other hand, if the case gets complicated that the time spent on it increases, you should be prepared to pay a huge amount.

For the per-case-billing, the attorney will charge you a fixed price for the case. This price will not change even if the case becomes complex and the attorney has to spend more hours on your case.

There is also a good and bad side to this method of billing. The good side is that you will know upfront what you are going to pay for the case and won’t be bothered about unexpected payments showing up.

On the bad side, if the case gets concluded faster, you might feel that the Los Angeles criminal lawyer just ripped you off. Some attorneys in this case might refund you a portion of the amount paid while some will not.

Since these factors contribute to how much you will be charged by a Los Angeles Criminal defense attorney, you should find out from the attorney before hand, how much their charges are, what is covered in the fee and the billing method they use.

A great Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer should be able to estimate from his experience, how long a case will probably last and be able to give you an estimate of what you should expect to spend on the case.


Los Angeles Federal Criminal Defense Attorney - Call Arash Hashemi (310) 448-1529 * 24 Hours a Day

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