Civil Litigation & Trial
Contract, partnership and professional negligence claims — pleaded to be tried, not just filed.
Springfield, California · Est. 1995
Measured counselwhen stakes rise
We take the matters that decide what happens next — the lawsuit, the buyout, the custody order. A partner reads your file the day it arrives and stays on it until the last signature.
Free 30-minute intake with a partner. No fee unless we recover on injury matters.
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Matters resolved
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Recovered for clients
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Years in practice
Peer rated
AV Preeminent since 2004
Counsel to
Northbay Grain
Caldera Group
Merritt & Co
Halstead Union
Vestry Mutual
1995
The firm
Nine lawyers. One floor. No handoffs.
Halvern & Roe was built by two litigators who left a hundred-attorney firm because their clients kept getting passed down the roster. We stayed small on purpose.
The lawyer you meet in the first hour is the lawyer who argues the motion. That is not a slogan — it is why we cap our caseload and turn work away when the calendar is full. It also means we can tell you in the first meeting whether your matter is worth pursuing, and say so plainly if it is not.
We work across four rooms on the fourth floor of the Whitfield Building, five minutes from the county courthouse, and we have been there since the firm opened.
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Matters resolved without a second firm involved
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Median time to first substantive reply
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Attorneys, four of them partners
Ellis Halvern & Nadia Roe
Founding partners
What we handle
Eight practices, chosen because they overlap
A business dispute usually arrives with an employment problem attached. We keep the groups under one roof so nothing gets referred out mid-matter.
Business & Corporate
Formation, shareholder agreements, sales and successions for companies with real operating history.
Employment & Workplace
Wrongful termination, wage claims and executive exits — represented from either side of the table.
Real Estate & Land Use
Purchase disputes, easements, construction defect and entitlement work across three counties.
Family Law & Custody
Dissolution, parenting plans and support modifications, handled quietly and without theatre.
Estates & Probate
Wills, trusts, administration and the contested estates that follow when the drafting was rushed.
Criminal Defense
State and federal charges, from arraignment through appeal. Two former prosecutors on the team.
Personal Injury
Vehicle, premises and product claims on contingency. You pay nothing unless we recover.
How we work
Four things we put in writing
You hear back the same business day
Every call and message gets a substantive reply before we close, not an acknowledgement from an assistant.
The fee is agreed before work starts
Hourly, flat or contingency — written out, with a monthly ceiling you approve. No line item arrives as a surprise.
We tell you when not to sue
Roughly one in five people who call us are advised to settle, wait, or do nothing. That advice is free.
Your file stays with your lawyer
No rotating associates, no handoff at trial. The name on the engagement letter is the name at counsel table.
Track record
What the last five years produced
Figures below are gross recovery or savings before fees and costs, reported with client permission.
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Recovered or saved for clients since 2021
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Matters tried to verdict or arbitration award
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Resolved before the second court appearance
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Appeals argued before the Ninth Circuit
$14.2M
Jury verdict for a family after a highway barrier failure
Verdict
$6.8M
Settlement in a minority shareholder freeze-out
Settled
$3.4M
Recovery for eleven employees denied overtime for six years
Class
$2.1M
Construction defect claim resolved at mandatory settlement conference
Settled
Dismissed
Federal wire fraud indictment dropped after a suppression motion
Defense
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every matter turns on its own facts, jurisdiction and evidence. Nothing on this page is legal advice or a promise of any particular result.
From first call to close
The route your matter takes
Four stages, each with a decision point where you can stop. You are never carried into litigation by momentum.
STAGE 01
Intake call
Thirty minutes with a partner. You describe what happened; we tell you whether there is a claim and what it would cost to pursue.
Same week · No charge
STAGE 02
File review
We read every document, pull the record, and return a written assessment: strengths, exposure, realistic range, recommended path.
7–10 days · Fixed fee
STAGE 03
Demand or filing
Most matters open with a demand letter that carries a credible trial threat behind it. If it fails, we file within the week.
Weeks 2–6
STAGE 04
Resolution
Negotiated settlement, mediation, or trial. You approve every number before it is offered or accepted.
Median 7 months
Fees
Three ways to pay us, agreed before we start
Which one applies depends on the matter, not on what you can be talked into. The basis is written into the engagement letter and it does not change mid-case.
Contingency
33% of recovery
Injury · some employment
- Nothing is owed unless we recover
- Drops to 30% if the matter resolves before filing
- We advance case costs and carry them until the end
- You approve every offer before it is accepted
Hourly, with a ceiling
$340–525/ hour
Business · family · property · probate
- Monthly ceiling you set and approve in advance
- Billed in six-minute increments, itemised by task
- Associate time billed at the associate rate, never the partner rate
- Invoices arrive on the first of the month, no surprises
Flat fee
From $1,200/ matter
Defined, self-contained work
- Written file review and opinion letter
- Demand letter drafted and sent
- Trust and will package, or an entity formation
- Contract review with a marked-up return
Costs are separate from fees, in every arrangement. Filing fees, service, deposition transcripts, expert witnesses, records requests and mediator time are billed at what they cost us, with receipts attached to the invoice. On contingency matters we advance them and recover them out of the settlement — and if there is no recovery, we absorb them. You will get a written estimate of likely costs before the first filing.
Case review
Weigh your matter before you call
Answer four questions. The scale shows how our intake team would weight the file today — evidence on one side, obstacles on the other.
Type of matter
Documents you already hold
Contracts, records, correspondence
When did it happen
Limitation periods matter
Amount in dispute
$250,000
These weightings mirror the checklist our intake team uses on a first call. It is an indication of how a file reads on paper — not advice, and not a valuation of your claim.
Intake weighting
0 / 100
Likely track
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Usual fee basis
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Indicative range
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Review turnaround
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Adjust the answers on the left and the scale will re-weight.
The people
Who will actually be on your file
Four partners, five associates. Every matter is assigned to a partner on the day it opens and stays there.
In their words
Clients on what it was like
Names shortened at the client’s request; matters described with permission.
Two firms told me the case was too old. Halvern read the file over a weekend, found the tolling argument, and we recovered every dollar eleven months later.
Denise M.
Employment claim, Springfield
They talked me out of suing my former partner and negotiated a buyout instead. It cost me a fifth of what litigation would have, and I still have the business.
Andre K.
Shareholder dispute, Caldera Group
Custody work is miserable and they never once made it worse. Priya answered on a Sunday when the exchange went wrong, and had an order modified inside a fortnight.
Marisol T.
Family matter, Springfield
I got a written estimate on day one and the final invoice was under it. After twenty years of dealing with law firms, that alone was remarkable.
Warren H.
General counsel, Halstead Union
They filed inside a week of the first call, and the other side settled before the first hearing. I never once had to chase anybody for an update.
Gregor P.
Contract dispute, Marin Ridge
The written file review was worth the fee on its own. It told me plainly what the case was worth and what it would cost to find out.
Lucia R.
Estate matter, Vancouver Basin
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Recognition
Peer and bench ratings
AV Preeminent
Highest peer rating for legal ability and ethics, held continuously since 2004.
Best Lawyers listing
Six attorneys named across civil litigation, employment and family law.
Trial Lawyer of the Year
Springfield County Bar Association, awarded to Ellis Halvern in 2022.
Pro bono honour roll
Over 900 hours contributed annually to the county legal aid clinic.
Insights
Plain notes on California law
Written by the attorneys who argue these matters, for people deciding whether they need one.
The two-year clock: how limitation periods quietly end good claims
Most people who call us too late were waiting for something reasonable — an insurer, an apology, a repair. California gives you…
Read the note
Before you sign the severance: five clauses worth an hour of review
Non-disparagement, release scope, and the reference letter you can still negotiate after the offer is on the table. A severance agreement is…
Read the note
Why the cheap trust costs the most: contested estates in Springfield County
Four drafting shortcuts we see again and again in probate court, and what each one costs the family that inherits them. The…
Read the note
Resources
Take these with you
The same checklists we hand across the table. Free, no email required, no strings.
First-meeting intake checklist
Every document, date and name worth bringing so the first hour is spent on advice rather than admin.
After a collision: the first 72 hours
What to photograph, what to say to an adjuster, and the three things that quietly weaken a claim.
Severance agreement review sheet
Clause-by-clause, with the five terms that are still negotiable after an offer lands.
Estate document inventory
A one-page worksheet for accounts, deeds, policies and passwords, ready for your executor.
Questions
Before you call
Bring these to the first meeting
- Any contract, policy or agreement in dispute
- Correspondence, including texts and emails
- Dates: when it happened, when you found out
- Names of anyone else already involved
- Court papers, if you have been served
Nothing. The intake call runs about thirty minutes and is with a partner, not a screener. If we think you have a matter worth pursuing, we will quote a fixed fee for the written file review before any further work begins. If we think you do not, we will say so on that call.
Three ways, agreed in writing before work starts. Injury and some employment claims run on contingency, typically a third of the recovery. Business, family and estates work is hourly with a monthly ceiling you approve in advance. Discrete pieces — a review, a trust, a demand letter — are flat fee.
The median across our practice is seven months from engagement to resolution. Matters that settle after a demand letter close in six to ten weeks. Matters that go to trial in Springfield County are currently taking fourteen to twenty months from filing, largely because of the court’s calendar rather than anything either side does.
No. The partner named on your engagement letter runs the matter and appears at every hearing. Associates draft and research under that partner, and you will see their names on invoices, but the person you met in the first meeting is the person at counsel table.
We appear across California and are admitted in Nevada, Oregon and the Ninth Circuit. For matters further afield we will either associate in local counsel or refer you out entirely — and we will tell you which, and why, at the first call.
No, but the clock is short. A California response is generally due thirty days after service, and a default judgment is far harder to undo than it is to avoid. Call the office rather than using the form — say you have been served, and you will be put through to a partner the same day.
Coverage
Courts and counties we appear in
Five counties within a two-hour drive, plus federal matters statewide. Hover a courthouse to place it.
Springfield office Counties we file in Federal matters across California
US District Court, Eastern District of CA
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
English · Spanish · Tagalog
Step-free access · ASL on request
Start here
Tell us what happened
Send the outline and a partner will call you back the same business day. If it is urgent — you have been served, or a deadline is inside a week — use the phone number instead.
Direct line
Email
Office
9785 Southwest Vancouver
Springfield, CA
Springfield, CA
Hours
Mon–Fri 8:30–18:00
Weekend calls returned
Weekend calls returned
Request a case review
Everything you send is confidential. Submitting this form does not create an attorney–client relationship.
Typical reply: same business day before 18:00 Pacific.