Honest And Fair Hometown Attorneys With Decades Of Experience

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DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK :

  • We are still working, but our office is not open to the general public. We will be conducting appointments and other business by phone. Call us at 419-468-5044.
  • To drop off papers or payments, please place items in the slot in our back door or call 419-468-5044 to make arrangements.
  • To pick things up, make credit/debit card payments, and conduct other business, call 419-468-5044.
  • We are still receiving our US mail, so you can still send us things.
  • We regret any inconvenience, but everyone’s safety is of utmost importance.

Questions And Answers About Attorney Fees – Part Four

As this series comes to a close, several general observations need to be made at this time:
1. Since lawyers typically base their fee on the amount of time spent on a case, the charge to a client can be increased or reduced in a number of ways. For example, if the attorney is required to attend a number of hearings because the contending parties resist reasonable opportunities for settlement, the charge will ultimately be higher than it would have been otherwise.
2. If one party raises a number of technical issues, then hearings will be more lengthy, require more preparation by the lawyer, and, consequently, produce higher fees than would have been the case had the matters been less complex.
Many issues cannot easily be prevented because there are two sides to every legal proceeding and the client only has control over one side. Yet, the typical client can usually reduce the fees for a lawyer’s services by making only those telephone calls and legal appointments that are necessary. While our office recommends that lawyers be used when they are needed, we urge that care be exercised by clients in deciding what kinds of matters require the lawyer’s attention. We advise clients to keep an outline of issues they wish to discuss with their lawyer and to schedule telephone and office conferences with the lawyer on a regular basis. The alternative of calling the lawyer six or eight times, devoting one call to each issue, would not only take more of the lawyer’s time; it would increase the client’s bill. However, the cardinal rule on these sorts of matters is the following: If you don’t know whether something is important but feel that it may be, always call the lawyer at that time without waiting to accumulate more questions. “Time urgency” is something that typically dictates contacting the lawyer immediately because there are a number of time limits, such as statutes of limitations, applicable to legal proceedings.
DISCUSSING THE LAWYER’S FEE
We welcome the opportunity to explain what we intend to do for our clients and to discuss our fees for legal services
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to ask them!