Turn expected hours, an hourly rate range and fixed costs into a low and high budget for a legal matter.
This estimator gives you a planning range for an hourly-billed legal matter. Enter the number of billable hours you expect, the lowest and highest hourly rate you have been quoted (or pick a staffing option to load illustrative rates), and any fixed costs such as a court filing fee, service of process or a records fee.
The formula is low estimate = hours x low rate + fixed costs and high estimate = hours x high rate + fixed costs. With the default inputs, 25 hours at $250 to $400 plus $450 of fixed costs gives 25 x 250 + 450 = $6,700 at the low end and 25 x 400 + 450 = $10,450 at the high end. The default figures are illustrative only; they are not a quote and not a statistic about any market.
To get a meaningful hours figure, ask the lawyer to break the work into stages (review, drafting, negotiation, hearings) and to estimate each stage separately. If a team will work on your matter, a blended rate somewhere between the paralegal and partner rates is more realistic than the partner rate alone.
The tool does not model expert witness fees, deposition transcripts, travel, or the extra hours that come from an uncooperative opposing party. Add a contingency buffer for those, and confirm the rates and billing increment in your written fee agreement.
Estimates and Hiring Checklists
What a civil lawsuit costs at each stage, from demand letter to trial, with an illustrative budget, the costs people forget and cheaper alternatives like small claims.
Fee Structures and Cost Drivers
Filing fees, service of process, depositions, expert witnesses, e-discovery and more. Learn which legal costs are billed on top of fees and how to request a fee waiver.
Estimates and Hiring Checklists
Build a realistic legal budget: identify the fee type, break the work into stages, add costs and a buffer, and compare quotes from different lawyers like for like.
Fee Structures and Cost Drivers
Understand attorney hourly billing: six-minute increments, timekeeper rates, blended rates, what tasks are billable and how to keep an hourly bill under control.
Fee Structures and Cost Drivers
A plain-English overview of how U.S. lawyers bill: hourly rates, flat fees, contingency percentages, retainers, hybrids and what the ethics rules require.
Estimates and Hiring Checklists
How unbundled legal services work, which tasks you can hire a lawyer for, what it costs compared with full representation, and the risks to manage.
