Hiring a Probate Attorney? Hire a Grandpa, Not a Kid

We live in a world of convenience. We are often willing to lower our standards for faster times and cheaper prices. When we want a gallon of milk we have many choices. We could get a gallon of milk at Safeway much cheaper than at Circle K, but yet we pull into Circle K. Why? Because our time is worth more than money. The same is true as to Probate lawyers. Lost time and delay caused by inexperienced lawyers is more costly than the legal fees paid to a more experienced lawyer

When it comes to hiring a Probate Attorney, you have many choices. For the uninformed, choosing the cheapest hourly rate seems like the best thing to do. But this article examines the qualities of a law firm that you should consider and argues that legal fees are not the largest cost to a probate. Time delays are the most expensive part of a probate.

What causes these delays? I have seen many examples over the years and the root of the problem is often inexperience. In one case, a young attorney practicing seven different areas of law filed a probate proceeding wrong two separate times, causing kickbacks and delays. The attorney simply wasn’t familiar with the local rules of that particular county. See, there is a separate Probate Court in each County, and they all have different rules and procedures. You could have an Attorney that is very familiar with Maricopa County, but not Pima County.

In another case, there were delays because the attorney was understaffed, operating his own one-man shop. The biggest complaint that most clients have over the lawyer they chose was that the lawyer did not answer phone calls or emails promptly. The lack of an experienced staff also causes delays.

Also, the cost of the more experienced lawyer doesn’t really cost you any more in legal fees. Take the young “one man band” lawyer. He or she may not even have a paralegal at all. All of the work is done by the Attorney at an hourly rate of $325 per hour, where most of probate work can be done and should be done by paralegals at much lower hourly rates. Lets do the math. Lets assume that a more experienced lawyer has an hourly rate of $425 per hour, but has a large staff of younger lawyers and paralegals. And lets suppose that the paralegals are at an hourly rate of $225 per hour. Now, if 70% of the work can be done by the paralegal, and 20% can be done by the Associate Attorney at $325 and only 10% needs the experienced lawyer at $425, you can see that this is much cheaper overall than having 100% of the work done by the young attorney at the other firm at $325 per hour.

Also, which firm gets the job done faster. The one man show firm or the experienced probate law firm with 6 attorneys and 4 paralegals?

Also, more experienced lawyers can have the answers to many questions off the top of their heads where a young lawyer may need to research the statutes. Hourly rates can be very deceptive. I have trained over 20 younger lawyers in my career. I would always get after them for spending time researching the Probate Code for an answer to a question that I could have answered off the top of my head. After 40 years there aren’t many statutes that I cannot quote. I can’t tell you the citation off the top of my head, but I can answer the question.

What’s the cost of a time delay caused by inexperience? A delay slows down distributions. (the time it takes for you to get your inheritance) If beneficiaries are already financially strapped, delays are serious. The beneficiary may have serious financial issues they are delaying with. Delays can also cost you the ability to sell the decedent’s house. Even if you already have a buyer lined up, you won’t be able to sell the home until probate is effectively opened. If a house has a $500,000 mortgage at 8%, a one year delay would cost $40,000 in interest. Plus, the time delay in selling a house in a down market can cost tens of thousands of dollars as well. Time delays can also make the creditors to the estate more difficult to settle at reasonable rates. Remember, interest is tacked on to creditor claims as well. Interest is also tacked on to the IRS- maybe even penalties.

So, if a kid says he will do your probate for $5,000 and a grandpa says he will do it for $6,500, what’s the overall better deal. Which deal will put the most money in your pocket when the probate is finished? In the long run, the time it takes the young inexperienced lawyer to get the job done, the grandpa will be cheaper. The house can be sold faster. Creditors and taxes can be dealt with sooner without interest. And the man power to get things done will be much smoother and simpler. In the end, more money will be in your pocket. Rember the old saying “don’t be penny wise and pound foolish”.

When you are choosing a probate lawyer, there is more to consider than just the hourly rate:

• Experience matters. We have the life experiences in seeing all scenarios. Dealing with creditors. Dealing with difficult beneficiaries. Knowing the judges. Knowing all the other lawyers. Having respect. Pick up the phone and talk to any attorney. They will take my call.
• The size of the firm matters. We have six lawyers and four paralegals all doing probate.
• Having offices thru out Arizona and being familiar with all of the counties in Arizona matters. Not making mistakes in filing.
• The experienced law firm will have a wealth of self help videos, articles, etc. to make your job easier and quicker. Before you hire a lawyer, take a deep dive into the website of the lawyer. You can tell the difference of a new website with very little in content, articles or videos.
• Take a look at the quality, not quantity, of reviews. Google reviews are easy to buy and easy to get. Don’t look at the number of reviews, look at the content and quality of the reviews.

The choice is yours: hire the cheap inexperienced lawyer or hire the old war dog with the backing of a law firm built over 40 years. “In the short run it takes the more experienced lawyer to settle the probate, the costs are lower and the money in your pocket is larger”.