- Spend your resources wisely
- Get organized
- Be clear and consistent about your goals
- Stay in touch
- Time off work?
- Follow through
- A partnership between attorney and client
#1 Spend your resources wisely
Litigation can be expensive. There is an inherent contradiction between the desire to leave no stone unturned and necessity of not overspending relative to the value of the case. At Rao & Pierce, we know it is important to spend your resources wisely and to limit your legal costs where you can, while still insuring that your case is thoroughly prepared. We advise our clients to consider all these steps to keep their legal fees to a minimum.
#2 Get organized
Your attorney will let you know what documents he or she needs at the beginning of your case. These might include things like bank statements, check registers, contracts, correspondence and pay stubs.
Invest some of your own time and effort at the beginning of your case to locate and organize these papers, and to put them together for your attorney in a clear and logical way.
The less time your attorney (or a paralegal) has to spend wading through documents just to see what’s what, the less money you will be charged.
#3 Be clear and consistent about your goals
Your attorney will develop a strategy for your case based on the goals that you want to achieve. Time and money are often wasted when clients are not sure what outcome they really want or need, or when they change their minds after court proceedings or negotiations have started.
We help our clients to establish clear and realistic goals at the outset of their cases, and encourage them to be consistent in pursuing these goals.
Of course, as your case develops, things will change and you may have to consult with your attorney to reassess your strategy. We won’t waste your money by pursuing a result that has become unrealistic. But we will try to continue to focus on the issues most important to you.
#4 Stay in touch
We will keep you informed as to the progress of your case and send you copies of all important papers coming to and going from our office, including letters and legal documents, as we receive them. Often, we may need you to respond to those documents very quickly to comply with a court deadline. To make communication speedy and avoid postage charges, we can send letters by email, and scanned court documents to our clients in .pdf format.
Tell us how you prefer to be contacted. Let us know in advance if your postal or email address is going to change, or if you are going away for an extended period of time. This means that we won’t waste time (and money) sending email to accounts you don’t use anymore, or leaving multiple phone messages during your vacation.
#5 Time off work?
Missing work (and pay) can be the last thing you need when you’re dealing with legal problems.
At Rao & Pierce, we are committed to doing whatever we can to avoid this kind of inconvenience and expense for our clients. Often, an exchange of emails can be a good substitute for an in-office appointment. And our attorneys are usually able to arrange special appointments at evenings or weekends for clients who cannot come to the office at any other time.
#6 Follow through
Smart litigation requires an extraordinary amount of diligence and follow through, not only by attorneys but by their clients as well. Appraisals and surveys must be scheduled, school and medical reports retrieved, and a seemingly endless flow of financial documentation must be hunted down from banks, credit card companies, the IRS, accountants, etc.
Getting your attorney the documents he or she needs in a timely manner will save you time and money. Give us the tools necessary to analyze your case, and the weapons necessary to fight it. In other words, help us help you.
#7 A partnership between attorney and client
You will find that there are many things that you cannot control when you’re involved in litigation. We work in partnership with our clients to control the things that we can, including excessive attorneys fees. We’re always approachable, so that you can talk to us about any aspect of your case that worries you, including your legal costs.
We make no promises or representations about the accuracy of this information, or how it applies to your particular case. These articles are designed to give you ideas to consider and discuss with an attorney, but are no substitute for legal advice, and must not be used as such.