FAQs
Here are some most Frequently Asked Questions about Lexadigm Solutions LLC that will help you better understand our services and us:
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Lexadigm Solutions LLC ("Lexadigm") provides quality legal and intellectual property solutions to attorneys in corporate and private practice at a fraction of the cost charged by its competitors. Lexadigm is not a law firm and does not render legal advice. Lexadigm limits its service offerings to licensed attorneys, unless the research assistance is needed in a non-legal matter (such as for publications) or on factual issues (e.g. business information or other financial research).
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Yes. Confidential information given by an attorney to any other expert witness, insurer, paralegal, or Lexadigm retains its privileged character where the purpose is to aid the requesting attorney in giving legal advice to the client. All client communications transmitted to Lexadigm are for the purpose of furthering the client's interest and assisting the attorney in his or her responsibility to provide the best possible legal advice to the client. In addition, the attorney-work product doctrine applies to communications between the requesting attorneys and Lexadigm's employees.
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Lexadigm goes to great lengths to ensure confidentiality of its customers' information. All information is stored on our secure, U.S.-based servers, which encrypt transmission of data between users' browsers and the servers. In addition, Lexadigm and its employees are under the same obligation to preserve the confidences and secrets of your clients as your employees, associates and outside counsel. We keep all information disclosed by our customers in connection with a project strictly confidential.
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Yes. At the time any project is submitted, Lexadigm collects sufficient information to perform a conflict-of-interest check. Lexadigm strictly avoids any question of conflict of interest by declining employment if it has provided services to opposing counsel on the same case. However, Lexadigm will research opposite sides of the same issue for different parties, so long as it is not the same case.
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No. Lexadigm only works for other attorneys – not the general public. We do not give legal advice or make court appearances. The attorney retaining Lexadigm's services is expressly advised that Lexadigm is not engaged in the practice of law and that its work product does not constitute legal advice and is prepared solely for the review of the attorney using Lexadigm's services. As such, our customers recognize that they are ultimately responsible for the work they provide to their clients, and they do not substitute Lexadigm's judgment for their own.
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To ensure compliance with export control regulations, Lexadigm carefully screens each patent project prior to commencing work. Lexadigm will notify the customer if, in its opinion, a license is required to do the work.
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See our Rates section to learn more about various fee structures available to our clients.
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By using a combination of on-shore and off-shore attorneys and engineers, we are able to charge the industry’s lowest rates yet provide the highest quality work product comparable to any reputable law firm.
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We go to great lengths to control the quality of our services and follow a three-prong approach: selective recruitment, rigorous training and close oversight and review. We are very selective about our recruitment practices and only recruit professionals who graduate from top professional institutions, have extensive work experience, and excellent English speaking and writing skills. Our high standards of recruitment are supplemented with extensive training. All our professionals undergo a rigorous training program designed to cultivate each employee's ability to be creative and consistently deliver the highest level of work quality under time constraints. Finally, all work product is subject to very close oversight and review by senior and experienced members of the team servicing a project, and subsequently, by the U.S.-based managers.
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In most jurisdictions a lawyer is not required to disclose to the client the use of outside attorney on such client's matter, except where the outside attorney would play a significant role without direct supervision by the retaining lawyer, client confidences are to be disclosed to the outside attorney, the client expects personnel only hired by the law firm to work on the matters, or where the temporary lawyer's services are to be directly billed to the client. Disclosure, however, is mandatory in a minority of jurisdictions (e.g. Ohio, Kentucky, and New Hampshire). An abundance of caution, therefore, suggests that an attorney should obtain a client’s consent before outsourcing legal support work overseas to avoid violating ethical standards as well as from a client relations standpoint. See our article on Practical and Ethical Considerations of Legal Outsourcing for a detailed discussion on this topic.
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When a lawyer bills the client for the cost of outsourced legal support services as a direct expense (or disbursement), the lawyer can only charge the client for the actual cost of such services plus the firm’s reasonable overhead involved with managing the outsourcing relationship. Such reasonable overhead, amongst other things, could include fees associated with the time spent by the firm in delegating the work to the outside service provider and for supervising and reviewing their work product, provided that the basis of such costs are communicated to the client. However, if the cost of such services are not directly billed to the client but are included in the attorney’s legal services, the attorney could charge a premium, provided that the attorney vouches for the work of the overseas attorney as his or her own work and the total fees charged are reasonable. In such a situation, the attorney is using the outside service provider’s work product in assisting the attorney in rendering legal advice to the client, but applies the additional “value-added” service of analyzing such work product and drawing legal conclusions that is then translated into advice or other work product for the client. In either event, the attorney must disclose to the client the basis on which the client is expected to incur such costs. See our article on Practical and Ethical Considerations of Legal Outsourcing for a detailed discussion on this topic.
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Requesting attorneys may use a variety of ways to start using our services: (1) Submit a project request by using our on-line form submission by clicking on Submit a Project. Your form submission will be instantly transmitted to the pertinent service department at Lexadigm and you should expect to hear back from a Lexadigm attorney within one business day (or sooner depending upon your turn around time) to further discuss your matter. (2) You may call us at 1.866.534.3640 or outside the U.S. 248-203-9777 to discuss a project. (3) You may send a project request by email at projects@lexadigm.com. (4) You may send a project by mail (30200 Telegraph Road, Suite 245, Bingham Farms, Michigan 48025) or by facsimile (248-239-0709).
Returning customers can also use one of the above methods to use our services or contact their Lexadigm Team Manager previously assigned to them. We do offer a flexible and customizable project in-take and delivery mechanism that suits our clients’ service needs, including in-take and delivery of projects through our secured FTP servers or direct retrieval and delivery through the client servers.
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Our customers can choose to be invoiced at regular intervals or on a project basis. Generally, the option to be invoiced at regular intervals is available and used by our customers who use our services on a regular and an on-going basis. With respect to customers who use our services on a project basis, we generally ask that customers pay an upfront retainer equal to ˝ the expected project cost and then be billed for the remainder of the balance within 30 days of project completion, or in the case of ongoing projects, at specified intervals. We accept Visa, Mastercard and American Express via our secure payment form.
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Our Research Specialists generally conduct their research on premium databases such as Westlaw, Lexis Nexis, and Delphion and the Internet.
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Completion time on a project depends on the quantity and complexity of the issue or issues being submitted. We have turned around projects in as little as within 24 hours.
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We can deliver the research to you in any format you like, from an objective memorandum to a drop-in argument for a letter. In terms of media available, we deliver projects on paper or electronically.
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Yes. If you want copies of the authorities cited in the research project, that requirement will be reflected in the project description and the authorities delivered along with the work product.
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No, there are no charges for this research.
