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Imagine you have represented a certain manufacturer and provided increasing product sales for a number of years, if not decades. Then one day, you unexpectedly receive a termination notice from the account along with a dictate from the principal as to how the relationship will be wound down. After reading your contract, you disagree with this dictate. Worse yet, you then discover that your key salesperson (who has recently resigned from your company) has been identified by the principal to be its new representative in the same territory! It’s been a bad day! You decide to seek legal advice.

MANA’s attorney members (listed on MANA’s website) are well adept in serving the needs of sales representatives, both in contract law and litigation. MANA requests their member attorneys, as part of their membership, offer to MANA’s other members a free annual half-hour attorney consultation. I know of no MANA attorney member who doesn’t abide by this request. If it takes you more than a half hour to get the attorney up to speed (it probably will), additional legal costs, if any, will be money well spent. It will probably take more than a half hour because a law firm taking on a new litigation client is a significant commitment to the business of a law firm and initial evaluation of a potential client necessitates an extensive review of the relevant documents and a clear understanding of the facts in order for the attorney to properly evaluate your needs.

During this initial consultation, there are some preliminary questions that should be posed, no matter your need.

What Are My Legal Rights?

It may be the case that you have more rights than you initially thought. There are many outside factors that could have an impact. The fact that you don’t have a written contract doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t entitled to commissions you have earned. The fact that your relationship with your account has been terminated doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to accept a final resolution being dictated to you by your principal. In many (if not most) states, MANA has been successful in having enacted laws and statutes to protect you as a sales representative. There are also well-established legal precedents that could govern your situation. The MANA-member attorneys are well aware of the law in this respect, and though the application of this law to your particular set of facts may be uncertain, you should at least be advised of the potential issues to consider.

How Much Will This Cost?

The ways attorneys charge for their services vary. There are two generally accepted methods that attorneys charge for their services; (i) by hourly rate or (ii) by contingency.

The hourly rate method is merely a function of the attorney’s rate per hour multiplied by the number of hours (or portion thereof) spent on the task. Rates for an experienced lawyer in a high-cost-of-living locale may be triple the cost of a recent law school graduate in a low-cost-of-living area, but just as you would not choose a doctor based solely on price, best practice is to give more weight to a lawyer’s skills than his or her hourly rate. The hourly rate method is best applicable to contract drafting or short-term tasks, and may be a good interim basis to continue past the half hour of initial MANA consultation to get to the next step.

The contingency method is best suitable when the attorney’s client has a claim to pursue through litigation or arbitration for a perceived wrong and seeks monetary compensation as a result (though the hourly rate method is sometimes used in these circumstances as well). In these instances, contingency attorneys will be paid based on a percentage of the recovery. Percentages vary, but the typical range is between 30-45 percent of the recovery, depending on several factors such as how the costs are to be allocated between the attorney and client, the complexity of the claim, the time and labor anticipated, the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved, the skill required to perform the legal services, and the experience, reputation and ability of the lawyer(s) performing the service.

There are other methods that attorneys charging for their services employ, and MANA member attorneys have become creative in finding ways to accommodate the needs of the client and the attorney, seeking fairness for both parties. Some such other methods may entail fixed fees or hybrid mixes of the hourly rate/contingency methods.

How Do You Evaluate My Case?

No attorney will guarantee you a specific result on your claim. Notwithstanding, if you have provided the attorney with a full, clear and accurate rendition of the facts (both good and bad) and the necessary documentation, most attorneys will give you a fair appraisal of your claim based on their understanding. Don’t be afraid to ask for such a non-binding evaluation. Such evaluations may be in the form of their estimate of a likelihood of recovery (as a percentage) and estimated range of the “settlement value” of a case.

How Long Will This Take?

You and your attorney should communicate as to time expectations and potentially impacting impediments. If counsel is being engaged for litigation or arbitration purposes, you should have a general understanding of when you may expect resolution, at least at the trial court level. Many trial courts govern themselves by docket control (or scheduling) orders which establish trial (and interim deadline) dates. If these exist, encourage your counsel to communicate them to you, though you should recognize that such deadlines are often modifiable by agreement of counsel or the courts themselves. If you are engaging counsel to assist in contract drafting and you have established deadlines for delivery of draft documents, your attorney should know what they are in order to accommodate your commitments.

What Disruptions May Be Incurred in My Business?

The litigation client should expect significant disruption if the case is not capable of being settled immediately after sending a demand letter or the filing of a lawsuit (many are). Time spent in responding to written questions, depositions, producing documents or reviewing documents that have been produced takes you away from your productive tasks of making sales and earning commissions. Discuss these with your attorney so that any surprises are minimized.

The MANA attorney members are available to the MANA members. All are qualified and are a useful tool that MANA makes available to its members. Use them and don’t be afraid to ask questions. As Stevie Wonder says, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”