Billing Basics

We ensure that all clients are billed in a timely, transparent, and predictable manner. Here are a few key points:

Method

• We complete some projects for a flat fee and others using an hourly rate. Your initial quote will spell out which of these methods applies to your tasks. To help you understand the ins and outs of hourly vs. flat-fee projects, we’ve created the article “Flat Fees and Hourly Billing: How Does It Work at Jackson LLP Healthcare Lawyers?“
• For hourly tasks, attorney time and support staff time are billed in 6-minute increments (i.e., if we have a 5-minute phone call, you’ll be billed for 1/10^th of an hour). The rate for each person’s time can be found in your retainer agreement.
• We collect a retainer deposit at the onset of our work together, and it remains in our trust account until it is earned. Many clients choose to pay their bills upon receipt and then ask that we refund their trust account deposit when we’re done working together. Others choose to leave those funds in our trust account to allow them to contact us anytime questions arise without needing to restart the relationship. This is entirely your decision, but you will be required to maintain a deposit on file while we work together.
• You will be billed either biweekly or anytime your balance exceeds the amount of your deposit funds in our trust account.

Third-Party Expenses

Aside from our hourly and flat fees, you may also be billed for third-party expenses, including:

• State-mandated filing fees
• Optional expedited filing fees, at your request
• Printing costs for documents sent to a third party
• Postage
• USPTO trademark application fees
• Bank fees if your payment is returned

Trust Accounts

A trust account is also sometimes called an IOLTA (“interest on lawyers trust account”). This is a specific type of bank account that holds only our clients’ funds, and it is highly regulated. We are not permitted to comingle any of our funds in the trust account, and it strictly holds only clients’ money. Once fees are earned, we transfer those funds promptly and mark the invoice as paid. You may request a return of your unspent trust account funds at any time.