Thank you for considering Frascona, Joiner, Goodman & Greenstein, P.C. to help with your legal needs. Answers to some frequently asked questions are outlined below.
To GET A SPEAKER for your event, for NEW CLIENTS & C.E. CLASSES contact Jennifer Overbey.
To inquire about BILLING or ACCOUNTS PAYABLE contact Beth Smith.
For all OTHER INQUIRIES contact Brenda Bonilla.
1. Do you offer free consultations?
In general, the law firm does not offer free consultations. Lawyers charge for their advice, experience, and their time. When you have your initial consultation, you will have the opportunity to discuss the facts of your case, and the attorney will answer any questions you have. We will provide you with an initial assessment of your case. In addition, by having a consultation and establishing an attorney-client relationship, your lawyer can no longer consider representing an opposing party in your case or transaction.
We appreciate the fact that a potential new client may want to meet the attorney before hiring the attorney. We encourage you to visit our website for a background on each attorney. If, after the initial consultation you do not wish to retain the firm for any additional work, you will be refunded for any retainer paid in excess of the fees incurred in the initial consultation.
It is important that you understand that before we can consult with you, we need to make sure we do not have a conflict of interest. We have a large data base that provides us information in relation to all of our clients. In order to determine whether we have a conflict of interest, we need to be sure we have not represented any person that may be adverse to you in your situation. For that reason, before we can consult with you, we need to run a conflict of interest check. In order to do this, we will ask you for the names of all parties involved.
2. What is a conflict of interest?
In general, a conflict of interest is a situation where the lawyer cannot provide legal advice because the lawyer either already represents the other party, or the lawyer formerly represented the other side in the same or a substantially related matter, or the lawyer has a personal or business relationship with the other side that would prevent the lawyer from representing you.
In the event we have a conflict of interest, we will not be able to refer you to another attorney. There are many websites that can be used to find an attorney, including, but not limited to www.martindalehubbell.com; www.avvo.com; and www.lawyers.com.
3. What is a retainer?
A retainer is money paid in advance. The money goes into a retainer trust account. When the lawyer provides services or incurs expenses, money is deducted from the retainer and paid to the lawyer.
4. How much will this cost me?
We appreciate that one of the biggest factors in deciding whether to hire an attorney is how much it will cost. In the initial consultation, we do our best to give you a range of what it will cost to complete the matter. We cannot (and do not) give exact fee quotes unless we are charging a flat fee. We bill our time in tenth of an hour increments. A client with an ongoing matter will receive invoices monthly. This can be explained in more detail in the initial consultation.
Again, thank you considering Frascona, Joiner, Goodman & Greenstein, P.C. We very much appreciate it!