SUGGESTIONS FOR REDUCING FEES
The dissolution of marriage often brings financial worries to compound an emotional crisis. Dissolving a marriage can be cost involved. The emotional crisis you may be experiencing can aggravate your financial situation, if you permit it to increase your attorney?s fees. However, you are capable of keeping your fees at a minimum by following these simple guidelines and knowing our general office procedures.
1. Office Hours ? We open at 8:30 a.m. and close at 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. We observe lunch from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday. On Fridays we close for business from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. for interoffice meetings. We may be closed on legal holidays, please check with the office to confirm whether we will be closed.
2. Telephone Contact ? Clients are often frustrated when trying to reach their Attorney by phone. It is important to remember that the Attorney?s schedule often takes her out of the office, to court, to a governmental agency, to another attorney?s office or other various locations. Even when the Attorney is in the office she is often unable to take telephone calls, which would unfairly interrupt a conference with another client or disrupt the progress on another project. However, to the extent possible, someone in the office will take telephone calls or return them at the earliest possible opportunity.
Telephone calls are often requesting information that can be readily obtained from the office staff handling your case. Since they will be familiar with the details of your case, do not hesitate to ask them when your phone call is either informational or when I am temporarily unavailable. Even if they do not have an immediate answer for you, this will always speed up the process of obtaining the answer. If you need information about the status of your case the office staff can probably give you information much more quickly than the attorney, and at a lower cost to you. Because of the Attorney?s schedule it could be more than a week before she can personally return your phone calls. Staff members may be able to interrupt the Attorney and get an answer which can be returned much sooner.
Remember the high cost of telephone calls. As a general rule, call and talk to the staff rather than the attorney. If legal advice or intervention is needed immediately, he or she is trained to recognize it and will know what steps to take. You will find that most often the staff members are capable of handling the problem or answering your questions immediately. It may be helpful for you to keep personal notes regarding questions that enter your mind. Reserve your telephone calls until you have thought about what it is you really need to know on more than one issue.
3. Remember that our services are primarily legal. Certainly, unless I understand the nature of your interaction with your spouse, I cannot represent you as well as I might. Also, unless you are thinking clearly, you may be inclined to make some decisions, which could ultimately be extremely costly to you. For those reasons, I will spend some time with you exploring this interaction, especially at the beginning of the case. From what you tell me, I may be able to point out some of the expensive ?games? that are being playing and explain how to avoid being one of the players. However, at some point, your sharing of experiences and problems may fail to generate a return worth the added costs that will appear on your monthly statement.
4. Participate in your case as effectively as you can. Your time will be less expensive to you than ours. Therefore, we will request that you obtain and organize as much of the information and documents for your case as possible, consistent with its proper and expeditious handling. For example, you may receive a ?Demand for Documents? containing a long list of documents which must be provided to the opposing party. If you simply bring us a confusing and unorganized mass of various documents I will assign a staff member to organize them. You will pay the full hourly rate for that service. You are far more familiar with your documents and will know which documents you are producing in response to which demand. My staff will gladly answer any questions you have regarding method of organization. This is one area in which you can save yourself considerable fees.
5. This office will provide you with copies of all documents we prepare or receive relating to your case. Organize the correspondence and legal papers in one file or binder and bring them to all conferences and hearings. This way you will have your own set of documents to refer to. It is important that you carefully review everything you receive since it is easier to correct errors when they are discovered quickly.
We will do our best to explain the progress of your case each step of the way. However, should you not understand the why or wherefore of our handling of your case, ask for clarification immediately. Delay will only hamper communication between us and require more time to clarify the matter for you later.
6. When information is requested of you or some action is required on your part, follow the directions of your attorney and respond as quickly as possible. Your delay can be costly in that it will require follow-up action on the part of my staff or myself. Remember, if you require prodding, you are paying for that attention.
7. Think positively toward the settlement of your case. I can hardly remember a case where the husband and wife had the same memory regarding the acquisition of assets and numerous other matters. There will be many disputes as to what the agreements were and perhaps some as to what the law is in these areas. I cannot give you percentages of probability of outcomes, nor can I guarantee any single result in the case. For that reason, and because Judges often dispose of cases in ways that disappoint both parties, it is almost always better to settle a case if one can obtain a fair settlement. Therefore, as soon as we have enough information to understand what is at issue, I will seek your authority to negotiate a settlement. A trial is the costliest route to the dissolution of your marriage.
8. Billing ? Statements are prepared each month and include all services rendered and costs advanced during the previous month. From time to time they will be late, because certain client matters must take priority. If there is a problem on your bill, you are to make a copy of it, circle the problem, give an explanation of the dispute and send it to our office. You have only 30 days from the date of the invoice to lodge a dispute.
Unless other arrangements have been made in advance, all balances are due and payable upon receipt. Since clients generally require immediate service it is not unreasonable for the attorney to expect prompt payment. Should unusual circumstances arise, appropriate payment schedules can be discussed.
9. Total Fees ? Whenever possible, we try to estimate in advance and within a certain scope of representation the total fee for services to be rendered in your case. However, the amount of time and the type of service needed will be dependent upon the activities of the opposing parties and/or their representation and the other involved parties. As a result, we do not quote maximum fees for handling family law matters except in very unusual circumstances, and then only in writing. For more complete information about fees, costs and expenses please refer to the Attorney ? Client Fee Contract.
10. Timing ? For a variety of reasons, some good and some bad, the legal process if often a slow one. The most common client complaint is how long everything takes. Where litigation is involved, the client should understand that one of the primary tenets of our system of justice is notice to the other party and the opportunity for them to respond to whatever legal action or tactic has been commenced.
There are waiting periods for almost everything so that the system will be fair to both sides. With more and more people using the Court system it has become overburdened and the calendars are crowded. This can mean time delays as well. Finally, legal rights and obligation are rarely as ?simple? and ?easy? as they sometimes appear to the layman. Complexities are not often unraveled quickly and the client who demands a quick result rather than a carefully considered one may suffer in the long run. While we will handle your case as expeditiously as possible, you are urged to remember that the nature of legal activity as well as our system of justice often takes time. Be patient.
The client should also remember that, while he or she may only have one attorney, attorneys have many clients. The attorney has an obligation of diligence, consideration and effort to each and every one of her clients, but can generally work on only one case at a time. Demanding the attorney?s immediate and exclusive attention can be not only costly but also unfair to the attorney?s other clients. Be assured that when your attorney is working on your case it will receive her undivided effort and attention. Please have the consideration to allow us to extend this courtesy to other clients as well.
By its nature, the practice of family law tends to be ?crisis oriented?. That often makes it difficult to find large blocks of time to work on major projects in an uninterrupted fashion, yet that is often the only efficient way to write an agreement or review lengthy documents.
11. Problems During Representation ? If for any reason during the course of our representation you become confused, uncertain or dissatisfied please contact us immediately. We occasionally learn that a client had a problem, which could have been easily solved or explained, but it was not addressed, resulting in an unhappy situation for all concerned. Do not hesitate to discuss problems as they may arise. An open communication between you and our office is not only healthy but also essential to a successful relationship.
Family Law cases create the largest amount of complaints, which are caused by the client being unfamiliar with the legal process. From time to time we will be sending you explanatory material, which you should carefully read, as that information should answer the majority of your questions.
It is my goal to see that you come out of this as favorably as possible. I will inform you when it is not cost effective for you to fight over an issue worth less that the fight will cost. Since I practice only Family Law and am in court on a weekly basis I have become very familiar with how each Judge might rule on a particular issue. Because of this experience I will be advising you on whether I believe your issue is worth pursuing. I hope this has helped explain some of the process to you and we look forward to representing you. I trust that our professional relationship will be mutually rewarding and satisfying.
This office does not employ any licensed therapists, nor are any of us psychic. We need your participation to effectively work on the legal issues of your case. A professional therapist should handle any emotional issues and our office would be glad to give you a referral to a qualified person who can assist you.
In summary, keep phone calls to a minimum, try to resolve problems before calling, and write down questions before calling. Participate effectively in your case by promptly returning requested documents to our office and by filling in all blanks on forms required and respond to our requests.