Answers before you have to ask twice
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.
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.
The route your matter takes
Four stages, each with a decision point where you can stop. You are never carried into litigation by momentum.
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.
File review
We read every document, pull the record, and return a written assessment: strengths, exposure, realistic range, recommended path.
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.
Resolution
Negotiated settlement, mediation, or trial. You approve every number before it is offered or accepted.
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.
Springfield, CA
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.