By Daniel Bulusson, Esq A.K.A Barrister Monkey Jacket

Google will tell you that competence is how good your abilities are at doing something, whether it be your job, sport or creating something. For the purpose of this discussion, our focus shall be competence on the job, particularly the legal profession.

The challenge of charging clients appropriate fees for legal service rendered or to be rendered has been in existence since the birth of the legal profession, we find a lawyer charging Five Million Naira for a job, while another lawyer will charge Five hundred thousand for the same job, yet ironically, the lawyer who charged five million naira would secure the job, while lawyer who charged less would loose the job, as they say ‘Life no balance’.

To my mind it is for the purpose of creating a balance on how to charge professional fees, that made the Legal remuneration Committee promulgate an order in 2023 to fix a scale of remuneration of a legal practitioner for business and service rendered. Lawyers less than 9 years post call were mandated to charge nothing less than N20,000 for consultation, minimum of N50,000 as professional fees for incorporation of companies and business names (i.e asides the cost of the incorporation) and N200,000 for litigation.

The wisdom behind this new scale of charges being passed into law is to prevent lawyers from undercharging legal services to be rendered. The truth of the matter is that, a lawyer must first consider himself/herself competent to render such legal service, and value the importance of the result of such legal skill, to gain the confidence to charge as he/she ought to.

Sometimes though, the reason why some lawyers undercharge clients is due to the prevailing economic hardship bedeviling every Nigerian right now, so when a lawyer who has an important personal need of N50k to solve, and then a client is offering N100k for a N500k job, it will take the grace of God for such a lawyer to turn down that offer, irrespective of how competent or incompetent the lawyer may think himself/herself to be. This has made many lawyers (this writer inclusive) to accumulate so much brain and time tasking briefs without the resources to show for it.

In the short run, this meager stipend might solve temporary needs and help one stay afloat, but the truth is that such briefs and charges does not help the life of a lawyer in the long run. Experience has taught me that it is better to fast when hungry, and buy a car when you charge appropriate fees for the right brief when it comes, than to feast for a day and keep trekking.

This brings me back to competence, even though it is true that the economic situation might tempt some legal practitioners to want to accept the available to go buy, always remember what your skill as a lawyer brings to the table, and ask who benefits more from such service, you or the client? Once you can begin to see that your worth ought not to accommodate any brief that comes along the way, then you would develop the strength to only accept briefs worth your time and can afford the time.

Let no lawyer depreciate his/her service for crumbs when the legal profession offers you the bakery, it is up to such legal practitioner to first find his/her worth, and let competence determine the professional fees. This writer has decided to let go of all the small claims brief this year, and dedicate my legal service to briefs that can only afford my time. For the avoidance of being busy without anything to show for it, I hope other legal Practitioners will do the same.

Compliments of the season and Godspeed!

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