LOE and fees

FynnbarFury

Is it OK to put in a letter of engagement, under the fees section, that my fee will be (for example) "the higher of £250 or £12 per hour for the number of hours worked"? I basically want to cover myself for all eventualities with this particular client - I don't want to accept less than £250 for the work, but don't want to work for less than £12 an hour if I end up spending a long time on it.

Is it also OK to say that fees thereafter for the work specified in the letter will only change in line with inflation? I don't want to get stuck with them paying £250 in ten years time, just because it said this in the engagement letter!
Thanks
FF

FynnbarFury

Sorry, perhaps I didn't make it clear in my question - I wasn't asking for suggestions/comment about my hourly rate to this particular client, but about the wording of the LOE.

burg

I don't mention the actual fees in our LOE. We state that fees are fixed and are as agreed in the covering letter / email and will change from time to time according to inflation and the nature and scope of the work required.

We then state what the fees are.

In the scenario above I would state maybe that as the records are not in our normal requried format there will be a degree of work to bring them up to that state. This work will be charged at £x per hour but I anticpate it will be in the region of £xxx.

From this point you will then be at our normal rate for this service which would be £250.

After this going forward we may be able to help you to understand our normal requirements and we can give you more accurate fixed fees for future work.

FynnbarFury

Thanks very much for this helpful response Burg - it's exactly the sort of advice/guidance I was looking for.