FAQ

How much do attorneys cost?

Every case is unique, it is difficult to say how much your case will cost at the outset. One lawyer has primary responsibility for seeing that your legal needs are met. Our office also utilizes law clerks, paralegals, and legal secretaries to perform routine legal services, such as information gathering, form preparation and legal research, which would otherwise have to be performed by a lawyer. These services are billed at substantially lower rates. Our years of experience and efficiency ensures that time billed to your account will not be extraneous or wasteful. 

Retainers

We may request that you provide a retainer to our firm prior to our providing services. Any retainer will be held in trust for you. During our representation of you, fees will be billed out of this retainer until it is exhausted. We are required by the Oregon Supreme Court to participate in the Interest on Lawyer Trust Account (IOLTA) program. Under this program, interest on funds deposited in our trust account is paid to the Oregon Legal Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides pro bono legal services. At the conclusion of our representation of you, any unexpended retainer will be refunded to you. If we do not initially request a retainer, we may later request that a retainer be provided. Also, we may request that the retainer be replenished or increased. 

Consultation fees

Except for estate planning and personal injury matters, our office charges a $200 fee for consultations with our attorneys. These meetings typically range from 30 minutes to 1 hour and allow prospective clients an opportunity to meet with and consult one of our attorneys and obtain legal advice regarding their matter. For your convenience, our office also arranges phone consultations. Note that these meetings do not create an attorney-client relationship. 

What should I bring to my appointment?

To prepare for a consultation, prospective clients should gather any documentation they may have regarding their matter and write down any initial questions. For phone consultations, our office may request that you send documentation via email prior to the meeting. 

What is a conflict check? Why is this important?

With each new client and matter, our office is required to search for potential conflicts of interest. Prior to scheduling an appointment with one of our attorneys, your name and any names you provide relating to your matter are checked against those of current and past clients to see if our representing you creates a conflict of interest for our firm. When calling for a consultation, please have the names and spellings of all parties relating to your matter available. Please inform us of any other names used or if you have affiliated companies so that we may enter those into our conflicts system. Failure to do so may prevent us from discovering a conflict which may disqualify us from continuing to represent you and cause considerable inconvenience and expense. 

Tax advice

The matters we handle may have significant tax implications. Clients should obtain tax advice from their accountants or other qualified tax professional. We cannot provide you with tax advice as part of our representation. 

Privacy

In the course of our relationship with you, it may be necessary to collect certain personal information from you to provide certain legal services. The confidentiality of this information is ensured by our adherence to the professional standards of confidentiality and the rules of governing attorney-client confidences. These rules generally prohibit us from disclosing confidential information without your consent, except as necessary to provide you with legal and related services. For example, our staff may have access to your nonpublic personal information for us to efficiently provide you with the legal services you have requested. Communication with our staff is always confidential. For your comfort and convenience, our office is able to arrange email-only correspondence and billing.

In order to protect the confidentiality of your nonpublic personal information, we maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with the Code of Professional Responsibility that governs our profession.