Legal Fees Research Articles

Which Companies Pay More (or Less) in Legal Fees? An Empirical Study of India

Which Companies Pay More (or Less) in Legal Fees? An Empirical Study of India

Prohibiting the Punishment of Poverty: The Abolition of the Wealth-Based Criminal Disenfranchisement

The majority of U.S. states disenfranchise formerly incarcerated individuals because of their poverty by conditioning re-enfranchisement on the full payment of legal financial obligations. This Note discusses the practice of wealth-based criminal disenfranchisement where the inability to pay legal financial obligations, including fines, fees, restitution, interest payments, court debts, and other economic penalties, prohibits low-income, formerly incarcerated individuals from voting. This Note argues this issue has not been adequately addressed due to unsuccessful legislative reforms and failed legal challenges. An examination of state policies, federal and state legislative reforms, and litigation shows that a more drastic state legislative solution is needed to ensure that no individual is prevented from voting because of their poverty. This Note argues wealth-based criminal disenfranchisement should be completely abolished.

Pocketbook policing: How race shapes municipal reliance on punitive fines and fees in the Chicago suburbs

AbstractThis article investigates a trend in the Chicago region that defies conventional accounts of municipal politics and revenue-motivated policing: since the Great Recession, higher-income black suburbs have sharply increased collection of legal fines and fees. To explain this, we draw on a study of municipal officials to develop a racialization of municipal opportunity perspective, which highlights how racial segregation in the suburbs intersects with policies that encourage competition over tax revenue to produce fiscal inequalities that fall along racial lines. Officials across the region shared views about ‘good’ revenues like sales taxes paid mostly by nonresidents, but those in black suburbs were unable to access them and instead turned to ‘bad’ revenues like legal fines to manage fiscal crises—even where residents were fairly affluent and despite the absence of discriminatory intent at the local level. These findings invite inquiry into the racially uneven consequences of seemingly colorblind municipal fiscal practices in the USA and the distributional consequences of municipal governance in other national contexts.

Improving Access to Justice: Do Contingency Fees Really Work?

While not touted as a universal panacea for access problems, contingency fees have received general praise as an important and justice-improving initiative. By back-loading the payment of legal fees, the assumption is that the interests of clients and litigants will be better served. I challenge that received wisdom. While the rise of contingency fee agreements between lawyers and clients has increased the number of people who can afford lawyers and make successful claims, the more challenging issue is whether that increase is being achieved at too high a price to clients and litigants – while more people are able to bring a case, which they could not otherwise have done, they will be receiving far less than they might actually be entitled to. In short, do contingency fees work as much or more to the advantage of lawyers than clients? I suggest not.

4A_3/2019 du 11 avril 2019 [Court and legal fees in case of withdrawal of a request to set aside an award

4A_3/2019 du 11 avril 2019 [Court and legal fees in case of withdrawal of a request to set aside an award

A Bayesian Approach to Modeling Multivariate Multilevel Insurance Claims in the Presence of Unsettled Claims

A Bayesian model for individual insurance claims is proposed which accounts for the multivariate multilevel features of the claims, including multiple claimants for the same event, each of whom may receive benefits under different coverages. A Bayesian approach makes it possible to account for missing values in the covariates and partial information contained in open files, thereby avoiding sampling bias induced when unsettled claims are ignored. For a given claim, the combination of coverages under which payments are made is modeled as a type with multinomial regression. The presence of legal and expert fees follows a logistic regression given the type. The non-zero claim amounts are then modeled with log skewed normal regressions linked by a Student t copula. The Bayesian framework yields a predictive distribution for the amounts paid, including parameter risk and process risk, while handling missing covariates and open files. The approach is illustrated with Accident Benefits car insurance claims from a Canadian company.

Lawyer Networks and Corporate Bankruptcies

Does having a lawyer familiar with the judge affect the judicial process? We exploit a setting where lead counsel lawyers are selected before judge assignment in corporate bankruptcies and find that cases resolve 25% faster when a lawyer-judge connection exists. The most effective connections arise through previous in-court interactions. Connected cases are more likely to emerge, have lower recidivism, incur lower legal fees, and their creditors recover more. Connected lawyers file fewer motions and their motions are less likely to be contested or denied. The results suggest that connected lawyers use their knowledge of judges' discretion to accelerate court processes.

Opting for the English rule: On the contractual re-allocation of legal fees

This paper explores litigants’ use of the possibility to contractually re-allocate legal fees, that is, to (potentially partially) opt out of the American rule. In our screening framework with two defendant types, the plaintiff prefers offering contract proposals with fee-shifting to settling with only the defendant with a weak case when the share of that defendant type is high. In the contract, the plaintiff offers to the defendant with the strong case that the litigant defeated in court bears all legal fees (i.e., proposes a switch to the English rule). The possibility to contractually re-allocate legal fees turns out to be irrelevant for cases involving a defendant with a weak case because the plaintiff always settles with this defendant type. Importantly, we show that the private use of the contracting opportunity differs from the socially optimal use.

Regarding the Dead: A Model for Anatomical Gifting Outside the Traditional Medical School Setting.

In 2017, Elon University became one of very few universities in the United States without a medical school to have an in-house Anatomical Gift Program (AGP). The program accepts first-person-consenting individuals only and within 2.5years has become self-sufficient, supporting anatomy curricular needs of its physical therapy, physician assistant, and undergraduate biology and anthropology programs (n=21 donors annually). This paper describes the timeline, costs, and benefits of developing an in-house AGP at a university without a medical school. Policy development, public outreach, equipment needs, and cost benefits are discussed. Within 2.5years of program opening, the AGP Director delivered 161 educational outreach presentations at 86 different venues across the state providing information on anatomical gifting. The program registered 320 individuals (60% female, 40% male) and enrolled 41 deceased donors (69% female, 31% male; average age of 74.6 at time of registration and 74.8 at donation). During the first seven months of the program, donor preparation costs (with outsourcing for transport/donor preparation/document filing/serology testing/cremation) averaged US$ 2,100 per donor. Over the past 23months, donor preparation has been completed on site, lowering the cost per donor to US$ 1,260. Other costs include personnel salaries, legal fees, and outfitting of the anatomy laboratory and preparatory room. Program benefits include support of anatomy education on campus, assurance that all donors have given first-person consent, and faculty/student access to donor-determined health, social, and occupational information. Faculty, staff, and students contribute to the daily operations of the AGP.

Billing without Bilking: Regulating Time-Based Legal Fees

Forthcoming, Dalhousie Law Journal. A lawyer should be a loyal ally for each client, and should never exploit a client for personal gain. Legal services regulation should prevent such exploitation. It should also create certainty, and foster trust in every lawyer-client alliance. When it comes to time-based legal fees, Canadian legal services regulation is not yet doing its job. Throughout Canada, rules say that legal fees must be “fair and reasonable,” and “disclosed in a timely fashion.”1 These fine sentiments are supported by long lists of factors to be considered when a legal fee is called into question and then assessed retrospectively. That is, more or less, all that the codes of conduct have to say about time-based legal fees. What we lack are clear rules and efficient procedures to determine what specific billing and disclosure practices are -- and are not -- “fair,” “reasonable,” and “timely.” The status quo gives unethical lawyers room to take advantage of inexperienced clients in niches such as family law, estate law, and employment law, in which time-based billing is common.2 It also subjects ethical lawyers, and their clients, to unnecessary distrust and disputes regarding fees. Reconciling the obvious need to charge and collect fees with the ethical obligation to practice “honourably and with integrity” raises complicated ethical issues,3 for which regulators should offer more concrete guidance. Without fixing prices or curtailing flexibility in billing arrangements, regulatory reform can create a much fairer field for agreements between lawyers and clients about time-based fees. Part 1 of this article considers first the beginning, then the middle, and finally the end of a typical retainer involving time-based billing and an inexperienced client. At each of these three junctures, we find ethical ambiguity creating both opportunities for exploitation and conflicts of interest. The vagueness of the rules requires a lawyer to unilaterally make decisions that increase or decrease the client’s bill. This creates a conflict between the lawyer’s financial self-interest, and their fiduciary obligation to put the client’s interest first. Part 2 argues for more detailed regulation of time-based legal fees, in order to prevent exploitation, create certainty, and eliminate fee-related conflicts of interest that undermine trust in the lawyer-client relationship. Wherever possible, the best practices for time-based billing already used by ethical and conscientious lawyers should be enshrined in regulation. Drawing on regulatory theory, I argue that a move from the current vague standard to more precise rules would create certainty, without significantly constraining flexibility. Part 3 turns from the rules to the procedure that is meant to enforce them. I argue that the court-based process for identifying and remedying unethical billing is inaccessible, inconsistent, and vulnerable to strategic abuse by both lawyers and clients. Making law societies fully responsible for regulating legal fees would make the system more holistic, accessible, and consistent.

Protecting Local News Outlets from Fatal Litigation Expenses

As lawsuits targeting the press continue to rise in response to today’s political climate, local news outlets are more likely to find themselves facing unexpected legal expenses. Although the national news media can generally weather the costs of libel lawsuits and subpoena requests, smaller news outlets have gone bankrupt or barely escaped such a fate while paying off legal fees, even when these outlets have ultimately been successful in their legal battles. Because local news outlets serve a critical role in underserved communities and are powerful agents of positive social change, they ought to be protected against fatal legal expenses. This article examines the important functions of local journalism, explains the recent legal challenges that local news outlets have been facing and their resulting impact, and exposes the problematic gaps of statutory frameworks that fail to adequately protect local news outlets from fatal legal expenses. In so doing, this article argues that enacting strong state anti-SLAPP statutes and reporter’s shield laws is necessary to combat the costly attacks against the press as of late and to preserve the vitality of the local media.

A STEP FORWARD IN FRAUD DETECTION SYSTEM USING MACHINE LEARNING

Machine Learning is considered as one of the applications of Artificial Intelligence that can provide the systems an ability to automatically learn or we can acquire the knowledge itself without being manually programmed. The dream of every online store owner which can be an e-commerce website, online retailers etc. is to become successful and to have a well-recognized startup company or even a famous brand. And it is a proven fact that the more popular or the more famous your brand name is, the more frequently it is to come in eyes of the fraudsters which means it will have a high tendency to become a target of an online fraud. After gathering the information from the various organizations, it was brought into notice that the percentage of the total revenue loss by fraudulent transactions in the year 2018 was 1.80%, which was an increase of 0.28% from the previous year in which the percentage of fraudulent transactions was 1.58%. And it was also noticed that the average cost for each dollar which was lost in the fraud rose by $0.17 from the previous year and reached to $2.94 in the year 2018.A fraudulent transaction generally leads to chargeback which is the sum that is to be returned to the customer by the seller/merchant after a fraudulent transaction has taken place. In processing a chargeback, the merchant has to bear operational cost also which includes transaction fees, legal fees, currency conversions etc. So, the task is to build a model that’s predictive but also minimizes the cost to the company not only by correctly flagging and identifying the fraudulent transaction but also to minimize the cost of wrong predictions.

Banking on courts: financialization and the rise of third-party funding in investment arbitration

In this paper, we explore the drivers of the rise of third-party funding (TPF) in investor-state arbitration. TPF involves financiers shouldering the legal fees of an investment treaty claim against a sovereign state in exchange for a share of any eventual award. Existing research has highlighted how TPF may exacerbate the inequities inherent to a legal regime that is already weighted in favor of private interests by increasing investors’ access to funding of their legal claims, but the factors which gave rise to TPF are little understood. We argue that financialization helps to explain both the spread and the characteristics of TPF. In particular, the evidence presented in this paper suggests that the large supply of investable capital that is searching for profitable investment opportunities helps to account for the rise of TPF. The analysis provides the basis for broader propositions and a research agenda about the ways in which financialization alters the logics of an international legal regime and aligns the interests of different private agents, both of which may change the public-private balance in investor-state arbitration and affect its legitimacy.

Preemptive bidding in common value takeover auctions: Social surplus and the target’s revenue

This paper develops a model of preemptive jump bidding in common value takeover auctions. It shows that, in a case of common values, jump bidding increases the social surplus and, under certain conditions, can lead to a higher expected target’s revenue. It also demonstrates that an increase in investigation costs may improve social efficiency even if it leads to larger direct social costs. Based on the results, the paper provides several implications related to legal fees and the length of the takeover contest.

Dirty money as legal fees in Namibia and Zimbabwe: are lawyers laundering proceeds of crime?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the contentious issue whether lawyers become launderers when they accept dirty money as legal fees. Lawyers represent criminal defendants who may wish to pay for their legal fees with proceeds of their criminal activities. The paper analyses the legal position of Namibia and Zimbabwe on such tainted fees and proceeds to compare with the different position taken by the United States.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a desk research methodology with reliance on various sources such as statutory laws, case laws, books, journal articles and the internet. Its scope is limited to issue and content analysis relating to the use of dirty money as legal fees.FindingsThe paper shows that lawyers become launderers when they accept dirty money as legal fees with knowledge or suspicion of its origins. It concludes that the prohibition of dirty money as legal fees is important in the fight against economic crime in Namibia and Zimbabwe. Even though it is decriminalised in the USA, the continuous prosecution of lawyers for tainted fees shows that state authorities are aware of the dangers of tainted legal fees.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the few available literature on dirty money and legal fees. It provides sound reasons why prohibition of tainted attorneys’ fees adds muscle to the fight against economic crime. No prior literature is available on tainted legal fees in Namibia and Zimbabwe specifically.

Reforming the Shareholder’s Derivative Suit in Nigeria: Perspectives from the United States

The shareholder’s derivative suit was developed by courts of equity as an exception to the majority rule. It provides opportunity for a minority shareholder to bring an action in the name and on behalf of the company to redress wrongs done to the company by directors who are in control. This paper examines the shareholder’s derivative suit in Nigeria under the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990. It highlights the procedural obstacles and financial burdens on the shareholder and suggests that the requirement of notice on the directors should be excused in cases of fraud and illegal transactions by the directors. It also suggests that, a derivative action being a corporate action initiated by the shareholder in the name of the company and on its behalf, the company should be made to bear not only reasonable legal fees but also all the expenses connected with the proceedings. Keywords : derivative suit, majority rule, management control, minority rights DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/94-12 Publication date: February 29 th 2020

Social Justice and Deposit Return Calculations: A Study of Success and Failure in Commercial Law Reform

The time has come to address ambiguity in the interpretation of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) provisions governing the return of deposits to defaulting buyers found in subsections 2-718(2) & (3) of Article 2 governing the sale of goods. In brief, the concern is that ambiguity in the drafting of UCC s. 2-718(2) & (3) allows courts to understate the restitution amount returnable to a defaulting buyer who made a deposit on a contract for the sale of goods. This mistaken interpretation allows sellers to retain a premium or penalty, in addition to compensation for actual damages. Recent case law creates the risk that this “penalty” interpretation becomes the norm, going against the famous case of Neri v. Retail Marine Corporation. Even though the maximum dollar amount of the penalty is, at most, $500 in any one case, the “penalty” interpretation raises social justice concerns. Empirical studies show that many Americans are unable to pay an unexpected $500 debt. Twenty five percent of American families have less than $400 in savings. More broadly, in 2017, 40% of adults report that they or their families had trouble meeting at least one basic need for food, health care, housing or utilities. Though $500 may appear small in a legal setting (given myriad court costs, legal fees and expenses associated with any case), social science research shows that the loss of this amount would create real economic hardship for many individuals and families. Given this economic reality, stewardship of the law requires that sellers not be overcompensated for their losses unless the parties have otherwise agreed to an enforceable liquidated damages clause. The penalty result is not required by either case law or legislative history. The problem arises because of two system design failures in the structure of the UCC. The failure of the drafters to foresee that the UCC would be used like a civil code rather than a common law code; and, the failure to have a procedure appropriate to make needed amendments outside of the grand codificatory act contemplated by Karl Llewellyn. The article explains why some action must be taken even though amendments to Article 2 which would have corrected the problem has failed.

Recent Investment Cases Against EU Member States: Europe’s Green Energy Policies Under Threat?

As a consequence of rising environmental concerns, a substantial number of EU member states undertook various programs aimed at subsidizing the renewable energy sector and promoting related foreign (and domestic) investment. During the 2010s, several renewable energy programs were replaced by less favourable legal regimes. These changes led to foreign investors suing the relevant countries, through the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism reserved solely for foreign investors. The costly nature of ISDS proceedings (such as legal fees and large arbitral awards) could cause a discouraging effect among member states considering similar renewable energy programs. This research thus aimed to examine whether such concerns have potential merit, whether the cases result in a downturn for renewable promotion in the EU. The method for doing so was through investigating two ISDS cases, followed by an analysis of the two affected countries' stance towards renewable energy before, during and after the ISDS process, and briefly discussing what lessons for other states could be found in the rulings. The research's finding was that a clear discouraging effect could not be established in either cases, and that it is unlikely that ISDS will negatively affect renewable energy promotion.

A Poor Divorce: The Impact of Economic Class on Divorce Accessibility and Processes

The implications and effects of a divorce are largely determined by family dynamics and how the separation is processed. The three methods of settling divorces discussed in this paper—independent settlement, mediation, and litigation—are designed to best suit and alleviate a particular case’s ills and circumstances. Consequently, the accessibility of these procedures heavily impacts the health and well-being of divorcees and their families. Through qualitative inquiry and expert interviews with a financial analyst, a divorce attorney, a family therapist, and a mediator, this paper examines how economic class impacts the divorce process and––more specifically––how income level changes or influences the way divorces are settled. The results of this research indicate that independent settlement is only preferable for low-income classes, mediation is available to both upper and lower income classes, and attorney-represented litigation is only an affordable option for high-income couples. Further, across all income levels, the spouse with greater financial stability is advantaged in divorce proceedings due to their ability to control and outspend the other spouse in legal fees.

Research Paper #5: Costs and Funding Commissions in Class Actions

In this paper, we examine the problem of costs in class actions in Australia. We review factors giving rise to substantial costs; costs in civil litigation more generally; current methods for the regulation; review and control of costs and possible reforms; reasons for excessive costs in some class actions, including problematic or unethical practices; and costs in North American jurisdictions. Empirical data on litigation funding and legal fees in class action settlements is examined. We also discuss the intersection of legal costs with fiduciary duties and other ethical obligations which may exist in the context of class actions. In our view, in many class actions the legal and transaction costs are excessive. This is, of course, a matter of some significance, not only from the perspective of professional and commercial beneficiaries, class members and judicial officers presiding over applications for approval of settlements, but also in considering the price of access to justice and in evaluating the operation of the civil justice system. We recommend the imposition of more focused and specific affirmative statutory obligations on all participants in the conduct of class actions with broad ranging sanctions and penalties for noncompliance and the establishment of an independent statutory fund, in which funding is secured on the basis of access to justice considerations, rather than the pursuit of profit.