Confidentiality:
The information you provide to us in connection with our services for you will be kept strictly confidential. The only exception would be if you tell us you are going to commit a crime, which of course is something you would not do.
The Outcome of Litigation:
If you are a party to a lawsuit, no one can tell you for sure how the lawsuit will turn out, whether you will win or lose, or how much any party may recover. This is because the outcome of a lawsuit is influenced by many factors, such as availability of certain witnesses, exactly what the testimony of the witnesses will be, the nature of the evidence produced by the opposing party, what action is taken by the attorney who represents the opposing party, etc. As the lawsuit proceeds, we will be able to tell you whether certain evidence is likely to help or hurt your case. In many ways, hiring an attorney is like going to a doctor if you are ill or injured. The doctor cannot tell you for certain whether the treatment he/she recommends will result in a complete cure. All the doctor can do is to do his/her best to cure you. Our pledge to you, if you retain us, is to do OUR VERY BEST to win your case or achieve the objective you retained us to accomplish for you. If you retain us, we will be your ZEALOUS ADVOCATE to the full extent of the law.
Fees:
When you need services of any kind, you want to know how much it will cost. Some attorneys always charge by the hour. That is almost like signing a blank check payable to the attorney. Our objective is, whenever possible, to charge a flat fee, meaning a specific dollar amount, for the service we provide. For certain types of legal services, such as wills, contracts, demand letters, incorporation, and deeds, we can usually predict approximately how much time it will take us to complete the work, so we can tell you the specific dollar amount of the fee for that work. We can also charge a flat fee for certain types of court proceedings, as long as they remain uncontested, such as an uncontested divorce, adoption, or probate proceeding. When any proceeding becomes CONTESTED (meaning the opposing party files a responsive pleading), however, representing you will take more of our time than was initially anticipated, so we must charge you for additional work on your behalf if that happens. If your case is or becomes contested, we will explain to you the additional work that is necessary, ask you how much additional work you want us to do and let you know the amount of the fee we will charge for the additional work. Like you, we have bills to pay, including our office rental and other office expenses, and we also have home mortgage, utility bills, food, insurance, student loan payments*, etc. If we must devote more of our time to your case, the work for your case displaces other work for which we would be paid, so we must charge you for the additional work on your case.
We strive to keep our expenses as low as possible and share the savings with our clients in the form of significantly lower fees. We use electronic document storage and communication (email and the internet) as much as possible to reduce expenses and help protect the environment.
*To become licensed attorneys, we must earn a four-year college degree and then also complete three years of full-time study in an accredited law school and pass the Bar Exam. Many attorneys must pay back a significant amount of student loans for tuition and living expenses necessary to gain the skills and knowledge to advise and represent you effectively.