Personal Injury Cases are mostly taken on a contingency fee basis, which is to say if there is no monetary "recovery", then no fee is owed.  A written contract is required for all personal injury cases. My contingency fee contract typically states, in part, that the contingency fee for a claim which is resolved without the filing of a law suit is 33 1/3 % and that if a law suit is filed in court, then the contingency fee becomes 40%.  File expenses are typically advanced and paid by the firm and then are collected at the end of the case.

For all other litigation, including Divorce and Domestic Relations cases, an hourly fee is charged for in office consultations (initial telephone consultations are free). Office consultations typically take about two hours, in which time I will interview you, answer your questions, determine the financial and other facts of your case, and then provide you with my professional opinions and suggestions on how best to proceed with your legal matter.  At the conclusion of the in-office consultation, a written retainer agreement is offered, based upon what the client wants to accomplish, the time and manner in which they want to accomplish it, attorney time requirements needed to do the work, and the complexity (or simplicity) of the case.  Future file expenses are included in the written retainer agreement. Because so much of contested litigation depends on what the other side does or does not do, and because any litigation has the potential of becoming very contested, it is simply impossible for me to quote a flat fee on most domestic relations cases.  Therefore, once the initial retainer is exhausted, an additional retainer may be required, based upon what is expected to soon happen in the case and the anticipated attorney's time and file expenses.  With this said, I know for a fact that my rates are as favorable to clients as any and I try to watch each client's dollar as I would my own.  I periodically provide detailed invoices and continually strive to provide the desired legal services to my clients at affordable rates.