As a practical matter, the fees attorneys charge tend to vary greatly. It is hoped that the following will help the potential client make at least some sense of attorney fees and how they are set.

NEVER HIRE ATTORNEYs WITHOUT A WRITTEN FEE CONTRACT

You might be surprised how many criminal defense lawyers do not provide written fee contracts. This is extremely dangerous and leads to potential problems. Often times attorneys who chooses not provide a fee agreement will tell the potential client that he will "start" the case at a very low price. Nevertheless, at every stage of the case, the attorneys require more money and threatens to withdraw from the case if he is not paid the additional sums. The result is that you can wind up paying much more than had you hired attorneys who seemed more expensive to begin with. A fee contract avoids these nasty surprises. Besides, why would attorneys not provide a written fee agreement that makes the obligations of both the attorney and the client clear?

AVOID HIRING ATTORNEYs THAT WILL ALSO POST YOUR BOND

While Texas does not prohibit attorneys from posting a client's bond, many states do because of the conflict of interest that exists. The role of a bondsman is to make sure you appear in court and a bondsman has every incentive to inform the court if you are not complying with the conditions of your release. On the other hand, attorneys are supposed to be your advocate and protect you from having your bond revoked in the event you do not fully comply with your release conditions. We have also seen cases where, when a client gets behind on his legal fees, the attorneys posting a client's bond threatens, and sometimes does, have the client's bond revoked as additional pressure to pay the outstanding legal fees. It should be easy to see why hiring an attorney to post your bond is rife with conflicts and should be avoided. You should hire an independent bondsman and independent attorneys.

BEWARE OF ATTORNEYS WITH A VOLUME PRACTICE

There are many attorneys out there that have a "volume" practice who offer to do cases at cut rate prices (often these cut rate prices are to "start" the case and the attorneys do not provide a fee contract). Many times, the income of these attorneys is actually substantially higher than other more qualified attorneys. Here is why. Let's assume you think about hiring Attorneys Smith & Co. You found Attorneys Smith & Co in the yellow pages where he has a full page advertisement promoting low fees or Attorneys Smith & Co has sent you, and thousands of other who had been arrested on a particular night a letter promoting his low fees. A yellow pages ad might cost Attorneys Smith & Co $50,000 and he might spend thousands of dollars per month on mail outs. Because Attorneys Smith & Co get so many calls from his ads and mail outs, he has to hire additional support staff to answer the phones and "screen clients" so that is more money toward overhead. Nevertheless, Attorneys Smith & Co is able to charge low fees because he has so many clients who respond to his ads and/or mail outs that he can make up for it and pay his overhead by running a volume practice. Often you will meet Attorneys Smith & Co for the first time in the courthouse when he shouts your name in the hallway. You will rarely, if ever, be able to get Attorneys Smith & Co on the phone to answer questions. If you resist pleading guilty and request a trial, many problems will arise. After all, how can Attorneys Smith & Co spend time preparing for trial and then sitting in a trial for several days? Simply put, he can't because the house of cards he has created with the volume practice will collapse if he cannot meet the dozens of other clients who have cases set on the same day. Nevertheless, don't feel sorry for Attorneys Smith & Co because he will often make much more money than average attorneys even after accounting for his high overhead. As a rough example, let's say Attorneys Smith & Co charges $2,000 per case but handles 500 cases per year. That amounts to a gross income of $1,000,000. Now, lets say other attorneys who actually return your phone calls and has time to prepare your case and represent you at trial if that is in your best interest charges $5,000 per case but handles 50 cases per year. That only amounts to a gross income of $250,000. In sum, if you have a simple case in which you know there are no legal issues to raise and you absolutely know that you do not want a trial and you are not going to want to ask your attorneys many questions, it could make financial sense to hire Attorneys Smith & Co. On the other hand, if there is any chance that you want to fight your case or you think you will have questions for your lawyer, spend the extra money now or you will have to spend even more later trying to undue what Attorneys Smith & Co did, or failed to do, for you.

BEWARE OF LATTORNEYS SIZING YOU UP

Unfortunately, we have heard of many attorneys who attempt to determine how much money potential clients have and then charges them "as much money as they can afford." We often see this with some California attorneys who advertise "national practices" on the internet. While it is admirable for an attorney to reduce her rate for a client with a low income, it is disgraceful for a lawyer to charge a wealthy client more than she would ordinarily charge because the client can "afford it." Beware of lawyers who seem to be asking questions that are designed to determine your income or assets that have no relation to the charges against you.

LEGAL FEES IN FEDERAL COURT WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER

There is a huge difference between state court and federal court. Almost all criminal defense attorneys are qualified to practice in state court. Nevertheless, very few criminal defense attorneys practice regularly in federal court. It is extremely dangerous to hire an attorney to represent you in a federal criminal case that does not appear regularly in federal court. Nevertheless, this means that there are very few lawyers to choose from if you are charged with a criminal offense in federal court. For example, in Dallas, there are probably less than 30 lawyers who appear regularly in federal court. Consequently, because of the limited supply, legal fees for criminal cases in federal court are often significantly higher than state court.

LEGAL FEES WILL VARY BASED ON THE ATTORNEYS QUALIFICATIONS

Again, this should seem obvious, although it is sometimes surprising what attorneys with minimal qualifications will attempt to charge a client. Some qualifications to look for is whether a lawyer is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in criminal defense attorney. Another is whether that lawyer is AV rated (the highest rating) by Martindale-Hubbell, an independent entity that rates lawyers.

FLAT FEE OR HOURLY FEE

Generally criminal defense attorneys in Texas charge a "flat fee" for their representation (although they often charge a "split" fee as described below). Attorneys should give you the option of paying an hourly fee, nevertheless, an hourly fee is generally more suitable for corporations that have very deep pockets. Individuals generally prefer the "flat fee" so they know in advance how much the legal representation will cost a the end of the day.

EXPENSES

In many cases, it will be necessary to hire a private investigator to investigate the case. In some case, it will be necessary to hire experts to assist the attorneys or to testify at trial. It varies among attorneys as to whether these expenses are included in the legal fees charged. Again, however, it is important to have a written fee agreement so that it is clear who is responsible for these additional expenses.