Delaware Employment Attorney, Ron Poliquin, often gets questioned about, why do most employment attorneys charge a consult fee? People get onslaught of commercials and ads and everything in the media, free consult, free consult and that usually pertains to personal injury and car accident cases. It is easy to see why people would be confused.
Why Do Most Employment Attorneys Charge A Consult Fee?
Ron Poliquin, DoverLawOffice.com. I am your Delaware Employment Attorney.
What we are discussing today is a topic I often get questioned about, why do most employment attorneys charge a consult fee? People get onslaught of commercials and ads and everything in the media, free consult, free consult and that usually pertains to personal injury and car accident cases. It is easy to see why people would be confused. Here is what I'm doing, I'm trying to answer why experienced employment attorneys charge a consult fee.
First of all, employment law is different than personal injury law. Most of the time when a personal injury client is coming in to see an attorney, that attorney knows they are going to sign on that client. There is a high percentage of success that there will be a settlement of some kind, employment law is different. Employment law is harder law as far as employment lawyers need to be more particular about the type of clients and cases they bring on. It has a much lower rate of converting clients to successful cases. That is simply because if you get hit by a bus on the street, or you get a car accident, there's going to be injuries, there’s going to be a settlement, there is going to be insurance. Employment law whether it be sexual discrimination, unpaid wages, gender, race discrimination, whistle-blower act, a lot of times there's no insurance involved. You are not dealing with an insurance company. So, if I'm suing XYZ dry cleaner for the most part they are not going to have insurance to pay that out. That makes it more difficult for the attorney to get an early and easy settlement for the client.
Secondly employment law is a lot more personal. If you are working at somebody's factory and have a slip and fall or hurt your hand, there is nothing really personal about that. There is nothing where you are really attacking the employer and the employer usually as workers’ compensation insurance. If you are claiming somebody sexually harassed you or racially discriminated against you, you are kind of attacking that person's character and business. People that own small businesses, or medium businesses, they take that very personal. So, they are much more likely to fight and litigate an employment law case then they are a workers’ comp case. That is really out of their hands because workers’ comp insurance is completely a different kind of animal. For employment law I find it takes longer for lawyers get paid. To obtain a settlement, it's a lot more work. There is a whole process and I'll go through that in another video as far as the EEOC, Department of Labor charge process that you have to go through, priority healing and even filing a suit in an employment case.
Attorneys want someone invested in their case, so in a way, they charge consult fees to weed out some bad cases or people that really won't have any skin the game. To a certain extent, I understand it's a little unfair because if you just got fired, do you have money to pay a consult fee? There are sometimes when I will not charge a consult fee, depending on the circumstances. What I will say as far as the benefits to of paying the consult fee to the client, get the right information first even if you pay for it, $300 for peace of mind is worth it, as far as I'm concerned. Most of us can scrounge together $175 bucks to $300 to pay an attorney and get the right information first, whether than going to an attorney that maybe dabbles in employment law.
Let’s put it this way if you’re with an attorney and you are telling him about your case and all the sudden they gotta pause, run up and take a break somewhere, they are probably Googling up with Google what information they are trying to get. Go to an experienced employment lawyer who knows the law and knows how to handle a particular case from A to Z. There are a lot of specific issues that go along with how to handle a case. Get peace of mind, go to an experienced employment lawyer. I know it's a little bit of a bite to pay that consult fee. But I'll tell you what, if you mentioned that you watched the video, I will wave a first time consult fee for you. Okay great talking to you, I hope that helps a little bit. Remember fight for your rights, you have rights, get peace of mind. Ron Poliquin, out. Thanks!
