Problems With Time Selling

At worst, billing for time discourages professional efficiency and use of any time saving systems. So it is against the interest of a professional, especially one in need of ongoing income, to do a job quickly or efficiently, or to settle any contested matter too quickly. Further, selling time leads to temptations to “pad” or fudge upward on claims of time spent. It also leads to the type of nickel and dime billing for short phone calls or any other quickly handled job for the client in order to obtain higher compensation for the time seller. Even worse for any client, time selling ignores results obtained or failures to obtain results desired by a client. The result is a proper and correct public perception of lawyers as mere time sellers who lack any real incentive to do well for clients quickly and efficiently

 

Smart consumers never seek legal services only for time with a lawyer, regardless of how charming the lawyer may be. Instead, consumers seek legal services for genuine needs they have unrelated to a time selling lawyer’s focus on time. Time selling often leads to a total disconnect between client needs and desires, and the lawyer’s duty to meet those client needs and satisfy the client desires. 

 

Time Selling Ignores True Value

 

There is often no logical connection between time spent by a time selling lawyer and the value, or lack of value of services to a client. For example, a real estate lawyer is hired to work on a transaction involving acquisition or sale by a client of a parcel of vacant land worth $50,000 in one case, and in another the property value is $5,000,000. Assume the lawyer time spent on each transaction is identical. Further assume the outcome for the client is identical, either a successful sale or acquisition on terms desired by the client or a failure to help achieve the client’s desired sale or acquisition. Who in their right mind would expect the lawyer fee to be the same in each case?