The ABA and State Bar’s have addressed the issue of attorneys accepting credit cards. Until now, this payment method required the attorney to reconcile the funds in their trust account against the fees associated with credit card payments via a three step process:
- The attorney must deposit the transaction amount from the client’s credit card directly to Trust / IOLTA;
- Calculate the discount fee, and the transaction fee that is charged by the bank, and make-up that amount by writing a check from their operating account for additional deposit to the trust account;
- When they receive the monthly processing statement, the attorney must then add the monthly processing fees and any other service fees back to the trust account by writing another check from their operating account.
Some attorneys deposit the entire transaction amount into their operating account and then write a check for deposit to the trust account. While their intentions may be honest, this is co-mingling of funds, no matter how short a time the money is in the operating account. This is a violation of proper trust account management and may not suffice if an audit were to occur. If it's client money it needs to go directly to the trust account.
All of these techniques are tedious and time consuming, and worse – they can lead to discrepancies in the client trust account. There have also been concerns of "charge-backs" in the event of a fee dispute. We've taken care of that as well. In the unlikely event of a chargeback the debit would be to your operating account only. We will never debit your IOLTA/trust account.
Because of these issues, many attorneys have simply opted to forego this payment method to the detriment of themselves and their clients.
LawCharge eliminated all of these problems with our Attorney – Merchant Account Programs. We know how important it is to grow your practice and still do all you can for your clients. Our programs will help you. We are committed to providing the very best to our fellow attorneys and it shows in everything we do. You can now take advantage of the many benefits available when you accept credit cards. Do yourself and your clients a favor. Call today and let us help you on your way to better returns for your hard-earned efforts; let us help get you on the road with an Attorney-Merchant Account program that specifically meets your needs.
