What Will the Lawyer Charge to Write a Demand Letter?

For obvious reasons, LetterDash has had to conduct extensive research in this area and has collected a myriad of data. Although every lawyer or law firm will generally charge different rates, we've found some very consistent averages concerning the demand letter drafting aspect of a lawyer's practice. In general these rates are affected by the size of the firm you are engaging, if it's a solo practitioner, a partnership, a small size firm or a large size firm.

Solo Practitioner: Most solo attorneys will charge $750 - $1,200 to draft and send your demand letter.

Partnerships: Most partnerships, that are generally made up of two or three attorneys, will charge about $1,500 for their time.

Large Firms: Most large or high end firms, those that give you the "Big Firm Experience", will charge $3,000-$5,000 for the same product.


The Challenge of Finding An Attorney To Take On Your Demand Letter Request

There are two great challenges to overcome in finding an attorney to "write a demand letter" for you.

First - Most attorneys are very busy, especially trial attorneys. The thought of spending 2 hours of their time reviewing and drafting your letter will never be a high priority. In fact, most attorneys refuse this piece-meal type work on the basis that they know their work will not be complete after the first draft. The revision process can be endless. Most clients request at least two or three revisions.

Secondly - The work is not desirable. Attorneys do not want to write and send a letter for you. They want to represent you. They want a retainer, that's how it normally works. You pay $2,500 or $5,000 and you secure their time. The lovely thing about retainers is that most attorneys aren't sitting there documenting the amount of time each task takes them and therefore retainer seems to always run out a bit too quickly, requiring you to pay more retainer.

This is tradition. It's just the way things have always worked. And because of these two challenges, the complaint we most often hear is that customers have reached out to a dozen local attorneys and in most cases, never heard back from any of them. The ones that did get back to them wanted thousands of dollars to draft and send the demand letter.

The bottom line is that attorneys are busy people and they're not sitting at their desk waiting for the next "demand letter", they're waiting for their next case. This makes it extremely difficult for you to quickly find an attorney that will charge a reasonable rate for a fast demand letter. Nearly impossible.