Services & Fees
[updated 01/07]
- My present billing rate is $250 an hour; the services of my legal assistant are billed at $30.00 an hour. We bill for the portion of time spent on the client's case and I also bill for certain expenses.
- A retainer will be due upon your retention of my services. The exact amount of the retainer depends on the nature of the services requested and will be discussed during our initial contact. Usually, I require a retainer of $2,500 to $5,000 to be paid prior to commencing work. Your retainer will be deposited in a Trust Account, as required.
- A monthly statement is provided for all services and expenses over the preceding month, and each bill specifies the date, nature and amount of the services and the cost of expenses on your case. If your retainer is exhausted, a new retainer amount will be required, so that it can be billed against as services and expenses are incurred.
- I will not accept contingency fee cases (where the lawyer is paid a percentage of the settlement or award as fees). All services I perform are billed on an hourly basis as indicated above.
- At first, it is possible that some questions or inquiries may only take a telephone call (for which I do not charge, as long as it is very short). In other cases, only a short hour or two meeting is needed; I would bill for the time spent as stated above and expect payment before or at the time of our meeting. I will not provide telephone advice beyond letting people know of some of their options, the agencies which might be helpful, where to get assistance or conduct research and the sort of helpful information that many people need. If I am asked for legal advice, I will have to be retained first and a retainer amount paid into the trust account.
- There are extremely short timeframes in civil rights cases [for instance, in Iowa a civil rights complaint to the ICRC must be filed within 180 days] and much depends on whether public or private employment is involved, whether it's a housing case, whether a contract or tort suit may be brought, whether the suit would be against a governmental official or agency, etc. For this reason, beyond explaining generally the time limits which might be applicable, again, no legal advice will be provided without prior retention.
- If you need assistance, you can find lawyers through searches online. Also, telephone book yellow pages can provide some assistance. Generally, it is most helpful for people with employment law problems to consult with and retain lawyers who are members of either the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) or the American Association for Justice [AAJ] , although there are certainly many other fine attorneys.
