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If you aren’t inflating the bill is what it is. It doesn’t seem excessive to me. The practice of family law is a different animal because of the “petty” issues and it not feeling like it should cost so much. I’m not practicing anymore but I did for 5 years in family law and I always felt this way - that my bill was too much even though I never over billed and in fact wrote off time. It’s the nature of the practice.
Thank you. I really appreciate your perspective.
I practice family law and I always prime my clients with the cost talk. I cannot control the bill. You can. And I remind them of that if they complain about the bill. It still happens but at least I have warned them. Your bills sound reasonable. Also the clients are bound to ask for the bills to be reduced at some point. Why be proactive? I don’t get that
Thanks. I find most of my individual clients don’t really ask for the bill to be reduced. Maybe because I do it as a courtesy up front, to creat good will. Corporate clients aren’t shy about asking.
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Also for reference on the pre-nup. I did one that was not all that complicated and not that many assets and little negotiation and it cost $4,000. So your scenario on the pre-nup does not seem bad at all… it seems like your clients are probably getting a bargain although they will also probably never set it that way or appreciate it.
Thanks. This is good to know. The prenups I have drafted lately are pretty lengthy. Just to read them though once takes a while. I guess it just seems like so much money for an individual to spend on this …the cost of a car or a nice Disney vacation. I try to remind myself that I have years of education and work experience that makes me worth it, but when I am charging that kind of money for work that comes naturally to me, I just feel kind of bad for the people that have to pay it!
Depends on the market. If your clients were willing to accept to by pay by the hour then it is what it is. Not sure if you’re solo or at a firm but did you do monthly billing? It’s always a good idea that way they don’t get slammed with a large bill at the end.
I always give a courtesy discount on my bills depending on the circumstances or I ask the client if they want to be on a payment plan
For a dissolution, I have one that has been under negotiation for almost a year, but the parties did not want to file until they reached an agreement. There have been at least four drafts of the separation and parenting agreements going back-and-forth with different proposals, the parties have had a lot of petty issues that counsel were involved in, and the other party changed counsel in the middle so we had to start some of the negotiations over. The amount actually billed total $23,000 but I already wrote off about 3500 and the bill now is about 19,000, and we’re almost done. Again, I don’t think that I have inflated my time at all, but does this seem reasonable? It seems a little high to me for a dissolution … maybe I should write another three or 4000 off for goodwill. What do you think? 
It's going to depend on your market and client. If you're billing hourly, and you feel the time is justified, I probably wouldn't write the time off. The negotiations change everything, especially the prenuptial. It's taken a simple drafting exercise to essentially a settlement.