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legal fee

legal fee

32 3.8
Money paid to a lawyer or law firm for help with the law
  • noun
  • /ˈliːɡəl fiː/
translation icon : honorario
  • I know this may be a bad time right now, but you owe me $32,000 in legal fees.
  • legal fees and costs
  • pay the legal fees
  • payment of legal fees

But he's recently, he's recently launched A GoFundMe campaign where he's raising money for his legal fees to help get him back out.

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Examples

  • I had to sell mine to pay my legal fees.

  • Of course, the plaintiff wanted his medical bills and legal fees paid.

    Academic text (2003)
  • So obviously that from a practical point of view, because my legal fees were massive, so it really did impact me.

  • You know, save some time, save some legal fees.

  • I'll pay your legal fees.

  • After months and some $2,000 in legal fees, you might get it back.

    Blog text (6)
  • Well, our organization will cover all legal fees, so none of you will ever have to pay a penny.

  • Some people will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees and divorces.

  • After five years of court battles and $250,000 in legal fees, Fuller finally gave up the fight.

    Blog text (14)
  • Do you have any idea how much money we're going to spend on legal fees?

Synonyms

fee
vslegal fee
729 1.0

Money paid for a service or right

refers only to payments made to lawyers for professional legal services

How High

legal fee
32 3.8

Surface Forms

legal fee singular
legal fees plural

Morphology

legal + fee

The meaning an amount of money paid to a lawyer or law firm for professional legal services is directly and transparently derived from combining legal (pertaining to law) with fee (a sum paid for a service). This modifier+noun composition is a regular, compositional pattern in English and in many other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Legal fee comes from a simple image: legal means 'about lawyers or the law' and fee means 'a payment'. Imagine handing money to a lawyer for help, and you have the origin — that's why it now means 'a payment to a lawyer for legal services'.