About to sign a retainer? Here's what a careful reader checks line by line
The engagement letter usually arrives as a PDF attachment with a line asking you to sign and return it that day, and most people do, because by then they have already had the consultation, decided they trust the attorney, and written the check in their head. That is the wrong order. The document is a contract for an open-ended amount of money, drafted entirely by one side, and it will govern every invoice you receive for the next year or two. Reading it takes about twenty minutes. Asking questions about it takes another ten.
The deposit, and what the agreement calls it
Most family law engagement letters open with a number you pay up front. What matters is the noun attached to it. An advance fee deposit, sometimes called a trust deposit, is your money held in the firm's client trust account and drawn down as work is performed, which means the unearned portion is still yours. A true retainer, sometimes labeled a nonrefundable engagement fee, buys availability rather than hours and may not be refundable at all. The words look similar on the page. Find the sentence that says whether the deposit is refundable, and find the sentence that says whether the balance must be replenished when it drops below a threshold, because that second obligation is a recurring bill, not a one-time payment.
Who bills at what rate
The attorney you met is rarely the only person who will touch the file. A good agreement lists rates by role: the partner, any associate, the paralegal, and sometimes a law clerk or a legal assistant. A careful reader checks three things. First, whether the rates are stated as specific dollar figures or as a range, since a range gives the firm discretion you did not agree to. Second, whether the letter reserves the right to raise rates during the representation, and if so, whether you get written notice first. Third, whether paralegal time is billed at all, because a firm that delegates document assembly to a paralegal at a lower rate will usually cost you less than one that does not delegate.
The billing increment, which is where the money hides
Almost every firm bills in fractions of an hour, and the fraction is stated somewhere in the middle of the letter in ordinary type. A tenth of an hour is six minutes. A quarter of an hour is fifteen. On a file that generates a lot of short contacts, and a contested custody matter generates a great many, the difference between those two increments is not academic: a two-minute call to confirm a hearing date costs six minutes of time under one agreement and fifteen under the other. Ask what the minimum increment is for email, which is where the short entries pile up fastest. Ask whether travel time is billed at the full rate or a reduced one.
Costs are not fees, and they are billed differently
Fees are what you pay for someone's time. Costs are money the firm advances on your behalf: the filing fee at the clerk's office, the process server, the court reporter's appearance and transcript, a records subpoena, mileage, and in a contested custody case the custody evaluator or guardian ad litem, who can run into thousands. Check whether costs are drawn from the same trust deposit as fees, whether the firm requires a separate advance for large expected costs, and whether there is a threshold above which the firm will get your approval before incurring one. Also check for administrative charges, copying, postage, and any flat monthly technology or file fee, and ask what each one covers.
What happens to the balance, and how the file ends
Two paragraphs at the end deserve as much attention as anything earlier. The first governs the unused balance: a trust deposit agreement should say plainly that any funds remaining after the final invoice are returned to you, and it should say how soon. The second governs withdrawal and termination, meaning the conditions under which the firm can stop representing you, usually nonpayment, and what you owe when it does. Look for the sentence about your file, since you are generally entitled to it. The Federal Trade Commission oversees consumer contract practices generally, but the specific terms here come from your state bar's rules, and an attorney will explain any clause you ask about.
If a provision is unclear, write the question in an email and keep the reply, which becomes part of the record if a bill is ever disputed. Firms expect these questions from clients who intend to pay attention to their invoices, and a signature given after twenty minutes of reading is worth more to both sides than one given in a hurry.