I want to sue that rat who did ___ (fill in the blank), but after getting a quote on legal fees from my lawyer I had to go to the emergency department instead. WHY are lawyers so danged expensive?
Well, we are not expensive for everything. Cut us a bit of slack. We spend 7 years in university and then another year as an indentured servant -otherwise known as ‘articling student’-and that represents a great deal of time, hard work and lots of expensive tuition. Beyond the initial investment of time and money to become ‘lawyers’, the only thing we lawyers have to sell is, well, our time. I am not selling appliances that you can touch and use. I sell my time and in turn I hope I am giving you real value for your money. On the other hand, if time is all I have to sell and the work you have is complicated or detailed, then my time spent on you will be higher than average. As an example of when lawyers are usually criticized for being expensive, a litigation file represents a great deal of time, even for so-called simple lawsuits. I have often thought that if rural or small town lawyers have to be a jack-of-all-trades (or jill in my case) then lawyers who choose to practice civil litig
