Carolyn Elefant, at My Shingle, has thoughts. Excerpt:
Yet here’s the irony. Credit cards and digital payments offer better protection against ne’er do well attorneys than trust accounts. How so? Consumers dissatisfied with legal services can seek a charge back or lodge a request for dispute resolution with most credit card companies or digital payment platforms. By contrast, all the trust account rules in the world won’t stop unscrupulous lawyers stealing client money.
Trust accounts also complicate – and minimize the benefits associated with flat fees, which more clients are demanding. In some jurisdictions, flat fees are considered “earned on receipt” and may be deposited into a lawyers’ operating count and spent immediately. This is so even if the lawyer, for example, accepts a $50,000 flat fee for a complex matter that may take two years to resolve.
Yet here’s the irony. Credit cards and digital payments offer better protection against ne’er do well attorneys than trust accounts. How so? Consumers dissatisfied with legal services can seek a charge back or lodge a request for dispute resolution with most credit card companies or digital payment platforms. By contrast, all the trust account rules in the world won’t stop unscrupulous lawyers from stealing client money.
Trust accounts also complicate – and minimize the benefits associated with flat fees, which more clients are demanding. In some jurisdictions, flat fees are considered “earned on receipt” and may be deposited into a lawyers’ operating count and spent immediately. This is so even if the lawyer, for example, accepts a $50,000 flat fee for a complex matter that may take two years to resolve.
- See more at: http://myshingle.com/2014/05/articles/setting-and-collecting-fees/want-lower-cost-legal-services-lets-ditch-trust-accounts/#sthash.kJVdmtBj.dpuf