Tips to Reduce the Cost of Legal Representation with London de la Teja

Transcript

Narrator: 0:00

This podcast is for educational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal assistance about a legal problem, contact an attorney.

Cimone Murphree: 0:15

Well, good afternoon London. We are very excited to have you on our show today. How are you doing?

London de la Teja: 0:22

Awesome. This is fun. I’ve never done one of these before, so I was looking forward to jumping on here with you guys and chatting about some fun stuff.

Cimone Murphree: 0:31

We’re going to be talking about cost of representation today, correct? And maybe some ways to reduce that cost?

London de la Teja: 0:40

Yeah, I think that this is definitely a topic that a lot of people want to hear about, because it directly affects your pocketbook and you want to be able to know what to expect when you’re coming into representation and what that looks like on the financial end. Walk into our doors, I am the one that helps you with all of that from beginning to end. So I wanted to kind of jump on with you guys and talk about some ways to help you along that journey. All righty, so let’s start. Let’s begin with a beginning, with a little bit of a list of start to finish what I would suggest. After working here for about 10 years now in the financial field, what I would suggest doing when you are wanting to be cautious about your financials, which I feel like everybody should be in every way. So here let’s start with the number one is to see how to communicate.

London de la Teja: 1:44

So communicating in the law firm is the number one thing. We are always talking to the legal team. We’re talking to each other. So, as hard as it might be sometimes, it’s really important to understand when you need to communicate to your legal team. So by limiting excessive calls and emails, it can greatly reduce your fees. That’s probably the number one thing that I think all of our clients ask me is does it charge me to talk to you? And the question and the answer to that would be yes. So it does charge you to communicate, but of course, we do take all those things into consideration. So we want to give you the platform on the best way to communicate, and to do that is to limit excessive emails and calls. That can greatly reduce your fees.

London de la Teja: 2:36

Also, the legal team is here to work for you. So if there’s new developments in your case or there’s any work that needs to be communicated, the legal team will do that. They will make sure that they reach out to you if they need anything. So I would suggest you limiting your calls and text messaging by writing down the questions that you have. That way you can consolidate them and use that time wisely. Also, you know, making sure that when you prepare that list, it can be an ongoing list. I like to tell the clients if you think of a question that you might have, but you know it’s something that can wait or hold off to make that list. Have that list ready to go so that when you do talk to your legal team, you talk to your paralegal, you talk to your law, you talk to your attorney that you have those questions ready so that you can use your time wisely. So that would be my first suggestion when it comes to that.

MJ Hooper: 3:28

And Ms. London, can I interject for a quick second, since I am on the legal team? I have seen several instances where the attorneys will send multiple questions to you as the client, and the clients will maybe answer the first two questions but not the last five. So that is another piece, you know, for you viewers and our listeners to pay attention to that when we are asking questions, please address every single one of those in that one single email and or portal message response to us, which will then assist in that cost savings, as Ms. London was just talking about.

London de la Teja: 4:04

Yeah, I completely agree with that. I see that all the time. Sometimes you give them a list of things, or give the clients a list of things or topics or questions that you might have, and they’ll address the first two and then you have to re-ask them or you’ll have to message them again or you’ll have to call them. Those are ways that rack up expenses that could be eliminated very easily. Just make sure that you’re reading through the messages and the communication that the legal team gives you. That way you’re able to respond to all those promptly and then that will definitely save costs. That’s really good feedback.

London de la Teja: 4:38

Okay, let’s go to the next section that I would suggest and that is asking how you can help your case matter. So this is sometimes something that I think that goes kind of off the radar. People forget about it, but it does come in handy and I can let MJ kind of jump on that at the end. But basically, communicating to your attorney and your legal team that you’re willing to do that, that you’re willing to help where you can, can really help your financials. So when you get on a call with your attorney or your or the legal team, anyone in the legal team and you are speaking to them, let them know.

London de la Teja: 5:17

Hey, if there’s anything that I can do that will help you guys save time and help save money, please tell me what those things are, and those things can be basically picking up documents that we might need or dropping things off that we might need. Making sure that you send in all your documents. Don’t have to have people ask you several times for them. Make sure you’re sending them in a readable and a viewable format. That’s huge. That’s the number one thing that I feel like we deal with. Would you say so, mj?

MJ Hooper: 5:48

Yes, ma’am, and in a format that is recognizable. I’ve seen some very funky coding on documents and you can’t even open them because they’re correct. So that does take time off of us as the legal team, and then we’re going to have to reach back out to you and ask that you send it in a readable format, and it would be helpful too if it’s the correct way, not upside down, guys, please.

London de la Teja: 6:14

Yeah let’s have vertical documents. Yes, and if you feel like you don’t know how to do that which we understand, not everyone is really tech savvy I would suggest you can always bring your documents to a place that can do it for you. If you really feel like you don’t know how, there’s also options on phones to be able to scan documents. I think that a lot of times people are like I don’t have a scanner, or I don’t have this, or I don’t have that. We live in 2024. You would be surprised how many different ways there are to scan documents. If you have questions about that, you can always reach out to me and I can be the one to kind of guide you through that. But I would suggest to looking on your phone at options to scan documents from your phone. Also, if you feel like you can’t do that, you can always go to a place and they can do it for you. Just make sure that you’re getting those documents over clear so that we don’t have to get you to send them multiple times.

MJ Hooper: 7:09

I would also like to say make sure that when you’re sending a grouping of documents, make sure it’s complete. Some of these documents may be 20 pages and I’ve received some where it’s cut off after page four Again. So that’s going to be another opportunity where I’m going to have to reach out to you guys and ask hey, I didn’t get the full document. Can you, you know, forward that to us? So simple things like that are very, very time consuming, but very important.

London de la Teja: 7:35

Very important, yeah, I agree. So I would say that is probably the number one thing in this list. There are more things that we’re going to go over, but just make sure, if you take anything away from this, make sure that you are scanning, sending all your documents you’re communicating, make lists of your questions, keep them all in one place ready to go for when you can use your time wisely with those conversations. Okay, next section we’re going to talk about is responding promptly. This is another huge one.

London de la Teja: 8:07

Okay, the reason that we want to always bring this one to your attention is that this can be a serious problem and ultimately, really, it’s just going to affect you. We are here to help you, so make sure that you’re responding quickly and promptly to the legal team, to the operations team, everyone here at the firm, because we’re here to help you. When we ask you questions and we need something back from you. It’s because normally there’s either a deadline approaching or there’s something that we need. To make sure that we get answers back and forth so we can do our best to represent you, wouldn’t you say? That’s true, mj? In regards to responding promptly is a huge one.

London de la Teja: 8:48

Yes, very, very important, and everything London said is definitely spot on Okay next section we’re going to talk about is how the best way to keep your attorney updated. Make sure to keep your attorney updated. We want to make sure that we’re getting all of the information from you. We don’t want to find things out later. We need to know them right up front. You need to make sure that you’re honest and that you’re transparent and that you tell us everything, and we need to make sure that we’re updated. So nothing is more of a waste of time than to draft documents, set hearings or prepare for anything without all of the facts. So just make sure that you are being upfront and honest from the start. We’re here to work for you. You are our priority. We want to make sure we’re doing the best for you, so make sure that you’re communicating that information and keeping us updated.

London de la Teja: 9:43

Please read your fee agreement. So I know that is also a huge, huge, huge one. Ms. silly to say, but it’s very important. You need to make sure that when you are onboarding, that you’re reading your fee agreement. We do something called an AR call that I do with all of our clients when they’re initially onboarded, and that is where I walk you through the fee agreement. We go over the main portions of what the financial side of your fee agreement looks like, what your responsibilities are, how we are going to help you with the financial side, or how we’re going to help you with specific things. It’s important that you understand that you need to know that your attorney’s billable hours need to know what their, what their billable rate is. And something I like to make sure that I remind all of our clients is that there is no charge to speak with me. A lot of the times people are scared to reach out because they’re worried that they’re going to get billed. Well, not with me. You can call me, text me, email me and we can go over all those financials together and we can review your invoices together. But it’s important that you understand, going in, what it looks like. So, understanding how your attorney bills and what is considered billable will help you plan your communication better and how to action things during your case matter.

London de la Teja: 10:56

You know, I think, that when you’re onboarding for the first time and having legal representation for the first time, things can be really overwhelming. Things can be very confusing and you don’t talk to right. It’s. It’s a lot. You want to make sure that you’re using what we give you to understand the process, but we’re here also to answer questions. So, um, there’s no, there’s no hurt in that. There is no hurt in that we really appreciate and we can tell when clients are. You know, are you are really taking the time to use the resources that we have and understand things.

London de la Teja: 11:35

So the next portion I want to go over with you is communication with the correct support staff, which is kind of something we’ve already talked about a little bit, but it’s very important when it comes to your financials as well.

London de la Teja: 11:46

So if you’re needing to ask a question or inquire about something that is a non-legal matter meaning you want to talk about how this process is, or you want to talk about how your invoices work, or you want to talk about when you expect to get your refund or whatever it may be, that’s a non-legal matter, like asking about your account or if you have the correct information on file make sure you know how to reach out to those people and who to go to to talk about that, Like you do not want to go to your legal staff to talk about questions that you can get answered on the operation side. So make sure you know who you’re talking to and you don’t want to be wasting any of your attorney’s time. They want to make sure that they’re using their time adequately, so make sure that you reach out to the right staff members.

Cimone Murphree: 12:43

And if you don’t know who they are, just ask, because we’ll tell you. We you know that’s a really good way to cut costs. You don’t want to call your attorney and ask when your refund is going to be sent to you, because that’s just going to add additional communication and potential additional charges for you feel like you’re lost.

London de la Teja: 13:11

So make sure that you ask and if anything, you can ask me, and I always tell everyone during our calls. No question is a stupid question. If you have a question and it is not something that I could help you with, I will direct you to who to talk to. Okay, this is the last one. It sounds silly, um, but the reason that I put it in here is because it’s still very important, and that is avoid venting to your attorney.

London de la Teja: 13:34

I understand that you, a lot of the times, these are very stressful situations and you your licensure could be on the line. You can be dealing with something so incredibly stressful that you just want to make sure that everything is known, which we do say. We want to make sure that you’re telling us everything. That’s very important, but there’s a difference between that and just going on. You know a tangent about things that maybe aren’t even relevant. So make sure that venting, like I said, is sometimes needed, and we understand that. We know. Most of the time you might be in a very stressful situation, but since your attorney must bill for the time he or she is spending with you talking about your case matter as long as it’s, you know, talking about your case matter, we do not bill for, you know, things that aren’t actually relevant and pertinent to your case matter. But we also want to make sure that we’re being smart about our time spent.

Cimone Murphree: 14:33

So its is like it’s more of just a comment. It just is like you know, when I understand that some people are in a really stressful time crunch and so they kind of you know, as soon as they onboard they’ve got to send a bunch of things and, like you said, you know things may be chaotic and so you’re not thinking, oh, I’m sending three out of four of my documents and things like that. I think my personal takeaway from this was you know if, if it’s not emerging in that time sensitive, it’s okay to take a beat to kind of get your ducks in a row, and doing that can save you money in the future because your attorney is not going to have to track you down or, you know, tell you three or four times that you’re missing this one document, and like those small kind of things can add up over time. I think they were really really good tips for our listeners and licensees in general who may be looking for representation, to just kind of keep in the back of their mind yeah, definitely.

London de la Teja: 15:37

Um, there’s also something you can do on the opposite side and send things that aren’t needed, which is also a time sucker. So you have to make sure that you are understanding what is needed. I mean, of course, it’s the legal team’s job to make sure that they’re communicating that with you, but make sure that on your side, when we talk about things that you can do to help, make sure you go through all your documents. Make sure you’re not sending things that we don’t need, that they’re going to have to look through and say, oh, we don’t need this, and then they’re having to, like you know, spend extra time reviewing that. Make sure that you’re sending what is required. Send it in a way that’s readable, in a way that it is able to be saved. Send it. Don’t send it in some random encrypted zip file that nobody can get into.

London de la Teja: 16:23

They need the password to get into it yeah exactly so, yeah, so I think that this is a really good conversation to have because, to be perfectly honest with you, this isn’t things that you would know just coming in, especially if you have never had to need legal representation before, and I think that it’s important for us to be able to share that knowledge with you so that you know that we’re we’re looking out for your best interest thank you so much for being with us this afternoon, london.

Cimone Murphree: 16:53

We had a blast and we definitely have some great tips and tricks for our license holders to save money should they need representation.

Narrator: 17:02

Yes, empower your professional journey. Know your regulator. The podcast that inspired you to engage.