What A Retainer Agreement Can Offer You

By Jeff Harmon

When you decide on a lawyer, one of the main things you will most likely need to consider is how to pay. Attorneys typically offer some choices to their clients including hourly rates or a retainer agreement. Sometimes attorneys even offer a flat rate for a particular set service or set of services.

You might be wondering what a retainer agreement is specifically. In the simplest terms, a retainer agreement is a fixed amount that a client agrees to pay to an attorney for working on a case for a set period of time. While the specifics can vary, it is common for retainer agreements to run on a monthly basis. Understanding how retainers work is in general a good thing, as numerous other professions also use retainer agreements as well.

Upon entering into a formal retainer agreement with an attorney, the work the attorney is usually billed through the retainer. The way this works is that the funds for the retainer are set up in a secure trust fund account. When an attorney performs a given amount of work, he or she is then paid out of the funds in that trust fund account. If at the end of the month or other designated period, there are funds left over, those funds are rolled over into the next month. It is important to note that if you go over the amount covered by your retainer, then you will be billed for those hours.

There are numerous advantages to using a retainer agreement. However, most people are still paying on an hourly basis. Overall, most lawyers and clients who have used a retainer agreement feel that the retainer agreement is a superior form of payment and a superior arrangement in general.

One major reason that lawyers prefer retainer agreements to hourly pay is that they know that they will be working on a specific case well in advance. This has clear implications for caseload management and scheduling issues. The clients benefit, as they know that they have more of their lawyer's attention throughout the money being deposited ahead of time. You can think of it almost like a down payment on a home.

Clients often feel that they have saved money with a retainer agreement overall and that they have probably received more for their money. There are other benefits as well such as being able to have phone consults with their lawyer if the need arises. There can be no doubt that lawyers on retainer are less likely to be distracted as they know in advanced that they have specific cases that they will need to focus on.

This should serve clients will in the long run and is a major benefit of the retainer agreement process.

About the Author:

Jeff Harmon is a personal injury lawyer with over ten years of experience who maintains a regular blog discussing the field of law. Harmon has worked in both the San Francisco and San Diego areas and now resides outside of Tempe, Arizona with his three dogs.

Misconceptions about Prophetic Giftings

By John Wong

Prophetic ministries are largely misunderstood among the churches of Christ today. We can see the Lord moving mightily in some places and that He is pouring out genuine prophetic anointing on His people. Many powerful prophetic ministries are born and ministers being raised up. In response to that, some attend every conference they can attend hoping for a share of anointing for themselves. Others totally reject the phenomenon due to wrong concepts and confusions.

Some believe that since God is so holy and wise, He would never anoint a person who has problem in his personal life or character or doctrine. Some even go into the extreme and fall in the sin of worshipping man instead of God. In fact, God uses weak and broken people all the time to show His glory, like Samson of the book of the judges. He is a mighty warrior who is filled with the Holy Spirit with serious problem spiritually and in personal behavior and character.

When people falsely believe that only perfect man are used by God with demonstration of power and authority, they either think too high of the man being used or totally reject all the prophetic ministers. The moment they see a flaw in the minister's character or doctrine, they immediately conclude that the power did not come from God because God would never use a person like that. This is obviously not biblical because we see a lot of examples in the Bible when God uses weak men who are far from perfect. In the New Testament, we see the most anointed church of that time, the Corinthians, was also the most carnal church of that time according to Apostle Paul.

Spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit freely according to His own will. No one can earn spiritual gifts with work or godliness. The gifts or any other demonstration of power on a person are not given as a badge or a sign that God approves the man's spiritual maturity. No one can earn the gifts of the Holy Spirit by trying to consecrate himself. Everything is given by grace as free gift, just like salvation.

No one could speak perfect word of God because we are all sinners and we could only prophecy in part. Therefore, we must test every prophecy. A well established prophet could tell something not from God, while a broken man with obvious problem could also possibly speak a prophecy from God. But still, we must be aware of false prophets who take people astray.

The Lord can also choose to anoint you with spiritual gift. If that happens, praise Jesus' good name and stay humble, because He alone is worthy of all praise. We are sinners and none of us is perfect. But the Lord can still use us mightily if we obey.

God gives spiritual gifts to a person for the common benefit of the church rather than for individual pleasure. When the Holy Spirit is so kind and merciful that He anoints us with spiritual gift, let us also be the gifts and blessing given to others.

About the Author:

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