You're probably not far off. I'm actually no good with...

You're probably not far off. I'm actually no good with accounting so I'm not even sure what variables they would feed into it. I report to our accounts dept on how many I settle, and how much I charge. I let them know how many potential settlements I have over coming weeks/months, and I let them do the rest.

The point I've been making over on SGH topics and here too, is that everyone is hung up on WIP, when the fees charged are often really arbitrary and have nearly nothing to do with it.

The best way I can explain is like a plumber/tradie coming to your house and giving you a quote on re-doing your bathroom: they just look at it and say "oh yeah, that's about $6k." That's kind of what I do with cases. I find out the facts, the type of claim, the insurer, the injuries etc. and then I give a quote based on how long it's going to take me and how much they can expect to get, and how much we'll charge but if even one of those variables changes e.g.:
- Client gets tired of process and says "just finish the case now"; or
- Client feels no progress so instructs another firm; or
- Injuries looked bad but the person recovers really well; or
- Client is uncooperative, un-contactable, or otherwise uninterested;
- Most common problem: client reaches stage of settlement conference -desperately wants money and doesn't want to wait - matter could settle but legal fees are taking up too much of the pie - client understands that if they hang on longer they will ultimately get more, but they want it finished without delay - firm reduces costs to enable early settlement.

These things do happen and it can throw a real spanner in the works. Sometimes I think we're going to get $4k and we get $15k. Sometimes I think we can get $20k but we end up with $10k.

If it's so shit, why do it then (I hear you ask)? Well, even though it's that unpredictable, the system is (deliberately) skewed in favour of the plaintiff. The little guy taking on the big bad insurer. So as long as 1 person can manage 100 files (say) and as long as the avg legal fees end up at $5k per file (very low estimate) , then unless you're paying that solicitor $500k, you're definitely coming out ahead.