Re: The Corporate veil

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In California,

On a case thats fairly similar, where the amount of the
dispute was $50,000, and the only issue was whether the
corporate veil should be pierced or not. I offered to
represent the client for a flat rate for $7500, not
including costs or expert witnesses. I consider it a fair
but discounted rate. I'm a Solo Practitioner. The only
reason I flat rated it for that price was because it was a
small amount at stake ($50K) but it could easily cost much
more if I did it on a strict hourly. I charged the client
$500 for an early case analysis and then told him what his
chances are and what needs to be proved, prior to offering
the flat rate.

All fees are negotiable, and it depends on how "hungry" your
attorney is, but assume preparing and going to trial is
going to take a minimum of 40 hours, and then multiply that
by your local hourly rate...

So if the average in your area is $200 then mimimum is going
to be $8000 just for the attorney.

Personally, I think that with way the system is you can
easily exceed those 30 hours.

If the case I mentioned above settles early, then I make a
real nice hourly, if the case actually goes to trial, I will
be working cheap.

On 6/06/07, Max Planck wrote:
> Consider a single owner, small income (under $40,000/year
> income), Illinois LLC that has followed all necessary
> corporate formalities in order to avoid the possibility, as
> defined by the relevant case law, that it could be judged
as
> being an alter ego of the owner.
>
> Let's assume that a plaintiff has won monetary damages
> against this LLC.
>
> Let's assume that the owner of the LLC also owns assets
> unconnected to the LLC worth, say, a few hundred thousand
> dollars.
>
> How much would you expect it to cost in legal fees to
defend
> against all attempts made by the plaintiff to pierce the
> LLC's corporate veil?
>
> I understand that the amount of legal fees will vary
> depending on how much effort the other side invests in
> piercing the veil, but this amount of effort will likely be
> defined mainly by:
>
> -the amount of personal assets that the LLC owner holds,
and
>
> -the fact that the LLC has followed all necessary corporate
> formalities in order to maintain legal seperation between
> the LLC and the owner.
>
> I'm trying to figure out a price range of what it could
> cost. After all, if you're in a situation where it would
> cost much of your personal assets to defend the corporate
> veil, it doesn't make sense to assume that your personal
> assets are very well protected by the corporate veil!
>
> Thanks, any insight would be much appreciated!
>
>