Page 321 - State Bar Directory 2023

us at the addresses, email accounts, and phone numbers you provide to us. You must tell us when you leave your normal residential area for any extended period of time.
You must also: provide us with all available information that may assist us in representing you in the Engagement; provide us with an accurate version of the facts pertaining to this Engagement; cooperate with us to pursue the Engagement; inform us of any developments that may affect this Engagement including any breach of confidentiality; be truthful; appear for appointments, depositions, settlement conferences, and court proceedings; and comply with all of our requests in the pursuit of the Engagement. You must timely pay for our services and the expenses incurred in connection with action that we have taken on your behalf. You must treat our office personnel with courtesy and respect. You must confirm with a trusted outside source the implications of any courses of action that we recommend to you.
If you do not wish to receive copies of all documents that we receive or send on your behalf, you must tell one of the Firm’s attorneys who are assigned to this Engagement. If you choose not to receive copies of the documents that we ordinarily send to our clients, your copies will be held in a separate file at our office to be reviewed and/or picked up by you during our normal business hours.
If, in the judgment of the attorneys assigned to this Engagement, you do not fulfill your responsibilities under this Agreement, then we may terminate our representation of you as set forth in paragraph 3.2 below.
1.5 Confidentiality. Communications with us concerning your case are generally confidential and protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege rules. However, this privilege is not absolute and we may be required to reveal information under certain circumstances. Facts pertaining to this Engagement may also be subject to disclosure rules or laws such as information regarding your assets, liabilities, taxes, income and expenses, and therefore, by law, that information cannot be treated as confidential. Further, if attorneys’ fees become an issue, this Agreement may be disclosed in Court. Also, your privilege of confidentiality can be lost if you discuss our communications with other persons. You must let us know if you believe that you may have compromised confidentiality in any way.
2. FEES, COSTS, AND PAYMENTS.
2.1. Payment terms. You agree to pay a Retainer of $_______. However, you are still responsible for paying any and all monthly charges incurred for the prosecution of this Engagement within fifteen (15) days of sending our billing statement to the address stated above. If the monthly charges are not paid by you in a timely fashion, we will apply funds from your Retainer to pay the current charges and then we may withdraw as your attorneys and cease representing and helping you in this Engagement. In that event, we will refund to you any remaining balance in your trust account. The Retainer will be held by us in an unsegregated, non- interest bearing, trust account at [BANK] as security for payment of the fees, costs, and expenses incurred by us on your behalf. You authorize us to pay these fees, costs, and expenses from the Retainer as the fees, costs, and expenses are incurred if you do not pay your bills within fifteen (15) days, as set forth above. We may need to ensure that your checks clear the bank and that funds are available before we disburse money from your Retainer. When this Engagement is concluded, you will receive the balance of any remaining Retainer funds that you paid us after we deduct all outstanding fees and costs.
2.2. Fees. You agree to pay hourly fees for our services. We charge for all time we spend on your case including the time that we spend on telephone calls and electronic communications with you, opposing counsel, unrepresented opposing parties, witnesses, court personnel, and anyone that has information about this Engagement. We charge for waiting time in court and elsewhere, and for local and out of town travel time. The fees for our attorneys and support staff are:
Attorney 1 $______ per hour
Attorney 2 $______ per hour
Paralegal/Legal Assistant (with law degree) $______ per hour
Paralegal/Legal Assistant (without law degree) $______ per hour
Legal Intern (without law degree) $______ per hour
Staff time (for tasks related solely to the Engagement) $______ per hour
We calculate hourly fees in a minimum increment of .3 of an hour no matter how short in duration a task may be, and then in additional increments of .1 of an hour as time is actually expended. If two staff members attend a court appearance, deposition, or other proceeding for any reason, you agree to pay the normal hourly rate for each person.
2.3. Costs and expenses. We will incur various costs and expenses to pursue the Engagement. You agree to pay for these costs and expenses in addition to our hourly fees. These costs and expenses may include but are not limited to: a $______ file set up fee for dissolution matters; court filing fees; process servers; assessments by public agencies; court reporters; independent contractors; arbitrators; settlement masters; mediators; expert witnesses; software applications used specifically for your case; long-distance telephone charges; research; postage; parking and other local travel expenses; mileage; lodging; printing, photocopying and other reproduction costs which may, at our discretion, include the cost of outsourcing the copying or printing; out of town travel; court- house parking fees; clerical staff overtime for work done specifically to pursue this Engagement; a $100 charge for each asset and personal information search on you, the opposing party, or any person related to your case; LexisNexis or Westlaw or other provider research charges for research specifically tailored pursue this Engagement; and other such costs and expenses. If we advance costs and expenses related to this Engagement, you agree to reimburse us for those costs and expenses in addition to paying our hourly fees stated above.
We may recommend employing experts, professionals, or investigators to assist in prosecuting this Engagement. We may also recommend taking depositions of certain witnesses. We will not hire such persons or take any depositions without your consent. You are responsible for the fees charged by such experts, professionals or investigators, and for the cost incurred for depositions. In some cases, these fees may be advanced by us and charged against the fee and cost advance that you provide.
Also, generally the Court requires parties to attend a settlement conference or otherwise arbitrate the issues in their case before a trial date is set. You are responsible for all of the mediator, arbitrator or settlement master’s fees and costs, and you shall pay a $1,000.00 advance fee or the advance amount requested by the mediator, arbitrator or settlement master prior to the mediation, arbitration, or settlement conference. If these fees and costs are more than the amount advanced, you are responsible to pay the difference. 2.4. Billing and collections. We will send you monthly statements showing the fees charged, costs incurred, expenses paid,
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