I live in Reno, NV and my ‘family’ lawyer is $450/hour, so I was under-stating the case, I know. I’d need to live much deeper in ‘flyover’ to get $300/hour nowadays. Like, maybe, a small town outside Utica, NY. However, If you consider $700 per as ‘on the cheap side’ my suggestion is: don’t use your business lawyer for home stuff. Even in the Bay Area, $700 is reasonable for upper middle/professional class personal stuff.
It’s clear you are a high functioning professional whose time is worth a lot, but, dammit man, you are feeding a vile beast when you settle – after perhaps one phone haggling session of ~20’ – and pay greater than 10X the original charge. It’s a luxury to do so, not a duty. Paying the original $40 + 2-3X fee is duty. Paying for this rapine which will be thrust upon other, less able people tomorrow, is not. It’s kind of the opposite.
