How we charge, why we structure it that way, and what’s in your control. The boring details are on this page because the alternative is finding them out at the wrong moment.
Two structures, depending on whether the work is repeatable enough to name a price for in advance.
Most wills, most LLC formations, most operating agreement reviews, most contract reviews under a certain length. You hear the number at the end of the first call, before deciding whether to hire us. The price is the price.
Probate, custom contract drafting, anything contested, anything where the timeline depends on a third party. We give a written estimate before starting; if real work runs significantly over, we stop and re-quote instead of surprising you at the end.
Most estate and small-business work falls into the ranges below. Anything outside them gets a written estimate before we start.
A few categories of work that come up regularly and don’t go on the bill — because making them billable would undermine the work we’re actually being paid for.
Because we don’t know what the work actually is until we hear about your situation. Quoting upfront forces us to either pad the estimate (to cover the unknowns) or under-quote and renegotiate later. Neither is fair. Thirty minutes of conversation is enough to scope most estate-planning and small-business matters honestly.
For hourly work, yes — the legal-industry standard. We round down on anything under three minutes and we don’t bill for the time it takes to read your one-line email asking what page 4 means. The flat-fee matters (most wills, most LLC formations, contract reviews under a certain length) avoid the increments entirely.
Then it’s hourly, and we give you a written estimate before starting. If the actual work runs significantly over the estimate, we stop and re-quote — we don’t surprise you with a number at the end. The categories that almost always go hourly: probate administration, custom-drafted commercial contracts, contested estate matters, and anything where the scope depends on what someone else does first.
For estate-planning packages over $1,500 and for business-formation work, yes — we offer a 50% deposit + 50% on completion structure as a default. For larger matters we’ll discuss a milestone plan on the first call. We don’t carry balances at interest.
Yes, for the first thirty minutes. Most matters get scoped inside that. If we run past it because you have a lot of ground to cover, we stop, tell you we’re past the free portion, and ask if you want to keep going at the hourly rate. About four out of five first calls end inside thirty minutes. The free consultation does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Thirty minutes. Plain answers. The fee comes at the end.
Schedule the first call