Lessons · Law foundations · a fee schedule total
A fee schedule is a list of prices and a count of things
A fee total is each item's price multiplied by how many of that item there are, added up, with nothing rounded until the end.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
A filing rejected for the wrong fee comes back days later, and the deadline it was supposed to meet does not wait for it. Getting the total right is arithmetic anybody can do, which is exactly why getting it wrong is remembered.
How to think about it
Make a three-column line for every item: what it is, the price of one, how many. Multiply across, then add down, then check the count of defendants and pages twice because that is where the error is.
Worked example
Filing fee: $410 for one filing.One item, one price.
Service: $70 each, on 2 defendants, so $140.The count is the number of people served, not the number of documents.
Copies: $0.20 a page, 300 pages, so $60.Price of one, times how many. Watch the decimal point.
Total: $410 plus $140 plus $60 is $610.Added down the column, once, and then checked from the bottom up.
Your turn
Service costs $70 for each defendant and there are 3 defendants. Write the amount for service.
Service on 3 defendants at $70 each: $
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Counting the documents instead of the people. Two defendants served with the same three papers is two service fees, not six, and the schedule says which is being charged for.