Tell us what happened

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.