How to Pass Credit Card Processing Fees to Clients Without Breaking Trust Rules: The 9-Step Surcharge and IOLTA-Safe Setup for Law Firms in 2026

Card acceptance costs a typical law firm 2-3% of every dollar collected, and firms increasingly want to pass that cost along. But surcharging sits at the intersection of three separate rulebooks - state law, card network rules, and bar ethics - and one wrong configuration turns a routine payment into a trust violation. Here is the 9-step setup that keeps processing fees out of your IOLTA account.