Rochester Minnesota Family Law Attorney

Attorney Legal Fees Rochester Minnesota

When it comes to legal fees, the way people pay for their attorney has not changed much over time. Clients are usually required to deposit a large amount of money in a special trust account before their case can begin, and then they are charged for every 1/10 of an hour of work performed on their file. At Dilaveri Law Firm, we think there’s a better way.

Clients usually ask how much a lawyer’s hourly fee is, when what they really want to know is how much their case is going to cost them. This is only fair. After all, when we hire a mechanic to fix our transmission, we don’t care so much about how much he charges per hour as opposed to how much it will cost to have a working transmission. And we certainly don’t like it when the bill comes back twice as high as expected, because of “some other stuff we had to do.” Billable hours work like that as well. You have no control over the final bill.

We strive to give you as much control as possible over what the costs in your case are going to be. If the matters are uncontested, there should be no reason why the bill would be greater than what was quoted. At Dilaveri Law Firm, for uncontested matters, you will pay us once at the beginning and there will be no more bills, no more surprises. Your flat fee will cover everything needed to finalize the matter.

Contested matters are different because we cannot control the actions of the other party. While it would certainly be possible to charge you one flat fee for any contested matter, it would not be fair to you if we charged $6,000 for a divorce we only did $2,000 worth of work in, nor would it be fair to us to charge you $2,000 for a divorce in which we end up performing $6,000 worth of work. So we use a different method in contested matters, while still striving to give you control and certainty over the costs of your case.

What we do in contested matters is break every case down into distinct segments and you pay a flat fee for each segment. Work begins on a particular segment when we receive that payment. And because not every matter needs to go through every segment, your bill is less and you remain in control of the costs.

A last point about third-party costs. Every case may incur fees that are not due to the attorneys, but rather to a third party. The most common costs are court filing fees. Others may include fees to appraisers, court reporters, expeditors, evaluators, process servers and so forth. We will never make a profit on these third party costs. We will charge you the exact amount we are charged, or if you prefer you can pay them directly.

The benefits of a flat fee or a segmented flat fee as opposed to a large retainer up front include:

• You remain in control of the costs by knowing, ahead of time, what it will cost to move the case forward;
• You can call, write, e-mail or drop by without feeling like you’re using up your retainer and without receiving a bill;
• You will never receive a bill for copying, faxing, postage or other in-house incidental expenses;
• You will never be charged a minimum billable amount when your attorney may have worked only a fraction of that time on your case;
• Your matter will be finalized as efficiently as possible;
• You will not have someone work on your file for the sake of billing hours;
• Your flat fee will include travel time, and you will not be charged separately for it;
• You will receive great representation without concern for administrative burdens or firm quotas.

SAMPLE LIST OF LEGAL SERVICE FEES

This list is meant to give you an idea of what to expect.  It does not include every type of case we handle, just some examples.  The quote for your matter will be determined and discussed with you after your free initial consultation.

FLAT FEE LEGAL MATTERS:

Uncontested Divorce (No children, pension division or real estate conveyances)	From    $750.00 (plus filing fees)
Uncontested Divorce  (with children, pension division and/or real estate conveyances)	From    $1,000.00 (plus filing fees)
Contested Post Judgment Motions  (Includes research, drafting, court appearance, negotiations, meetings, emails, calls, and more)	From    $1,500.00 (plus filing fees)
Simple Wills:
Single person (with complementary Power of Attorney and Health Care Directive)	From    $400.00
Husband and Wife (with complementary Power of Attorney and Health Care Directive)	From    $650.00
Adoption:
Stepparent or Agency Adoption	From    $750.00 (plus filing fees)
Direct Placement	From     $1,250.00 (plus filing fees)
SEGMENTED FLAT FEE LEGAL MATTERS:
Preliminary Stage (Includes: All meetings, Document Review, Drafting the Petition or the Answer, Negotiations, emails, phone calls)	From    $1,000.00(plus filing and service fees)
Temporary Relief Motions (Includes research, drafting, court appearance, negotiations, meetings, emails, calls, travel time, correspondence)	From    $1,250.00 (plus filing fee)
Discovery (Serving and responding to Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents)	From    $700.00 (per set)
Discovery – Depositions  (Notice and appearance)	From    $500.00 (per half day)
Attend Mediation (If requested)	From    $150.00/hour
Trial (includes pre-trial submissions, preparations, court appearance, post-trial submissions, research, negotiations, meetings, emails, calls, travel time, and more)	From    $750.00 (per half day)

Request a Free Consultation

If you have additional questions about Legal Fees in Minnesota, please contact the Dilaveri Law Firm today. We always offer free initial consultations to our clients. Call  507.206.6020 or complete our free case evaluation form.