Legal Fees – The Inexpensive Option

We’ve all heard the countless jokes about attorneys and their fees. You’ve likely even heard someone relay a real-life complaint about legal bills they’ve incurred. But some of the worst real-life horror stories that we’ve heard involve clients or customers who decided to forego paying an experienced attorney to guide them through a transaction. When a conflict later arose, they paid much more to “right a wrong” than what they would have paid up front for properly written, attorney prepared documents.

Rather than utilizing the services of an experienced and reputable transaction attorney, we sometimes see parties use lower cost methods for getting a contract written. They might use a friend who handles traffic tickets or bankruptcies (still good attorneys) and who will do it as a favor at a cut rate. Worse yet, they may lift a generic contract from the internet. At Apex Business Advisors we require parties to the transaction to have legal representation.

What many business buyers or sellers fail to realize is that the responsibility of a good “deal” attorney is to protect their client. Good attorneys want to mitigate risk and avoid future lawsuits and claims. Both parties need protections. Shortcutting it by going cheap isn’t the answer. Utilizing a transaction attorney who knows how to sufficiently document these protections may well pay off in the long run rather than spending many thousands of dollars more trying to correct a problem down the road. Remember the old saying from Benjamin Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

We can recommend transaction attorneys who are skilled at negotiating and drafting contracts with appropriate protections for all parties. Please call your Apex Business Advisor for our attorney recommendations.