Fee Considerations

We pride ourselves on trying to charge every client a reasonable fee. Factors we use to determine our fee is the time and labor required, the novelty and difficulty of the questions involved, and the skill requisite to perform the legal services properly. Also, we consider the likelihood of precluding other employment to our Law Firm, the fee customarily charged in our community for similar legal services, the amount involved and the results obtained, the time limitations imposed by the client or by the circumstances, the nature and length of the professional relationship with the client, and our level of professional experience in the performance of these services.

Flat Fees

Phillips & King charges a flat fee for most criminal and business incorporation cases handled by the law firm. This means whether your case is a traffic, DUI, a plea bargained criminal matter, or the incorporation of a business, you will know where you stand with our firm since the charge for your case is a flat fee! Unlike many law firms that charge by the hour for each and every telephone call and other tasks performed on a case, Our firm charges a flat fee thereby enabling you in these cases to avoid the stressful feeling that you would experience if you were charged by the hour for each task performed on your case.

Advanced Payment Retainer

Cases like a divorce or other family law related mater, foreclosure proceeding, an estate plan, probate matters, and other forms of Civil Litigation may require other fee structures depending on the complexity of the case. However as with flat fees, our firm does not generally charge for phone calls, copies, and other peripheral actions. You pay for direct action on your case such as motions, hearings, etc. This client friendly approach to your legal fees is designed to help you budget for your case and reduce the stress connected with your matter.

For certain unique cases, we charge an Advance Payment Retainer Fee at the time we accept your case. The Advance Payment Retainer is an advance fee payment for some or all of the legal services to be rendered in our representation of you. The Advance Payment Retainer is a �prepayment� applied against our firm’s hourly charges of $250.00 per hour for an attorney and $125.00 for each paralegal. The law firm spends down the Advance Payment Retainer as professional services are rendered. Attorneys and Legal Assistants bill in fifteen (15) minute increments. You will be required to replenish the Advance Payment Retainer when your Advance Payment Retainer has been depleted to a credit balance of $500.00 or less.

Hourly Charges

Many of our fee arrangements are based on a client friendly flat fee or via a retainer, as described above. Therefore an hourly fee is rarely charged to a client. For the rare types of cases that use an outright hourly fee with no retainer, we calculate our fee by multiplying our $250.00 hourly charge by the number of Attorney hours devoted to your case and our $125.00 hourly charge by the number of Legal Assistant and/or Administrative hours devoted to your case. Attorneys and Legal Assistants bill in fifteen (15) minute increments. On occasion, we may increase our hourly charge thereby affecting your obligation to us. This increase typically occurs at the beginning of the calendar year and it will be reflected on your invoice for professional services rendered.

Contingency Fee

Our Contingency Fee is a type of flat fee. For certain Professional procedures, such as Personal Injury Cases, our fee is a flat percentage of the amount of money collected for you. In other words, we are not paid until you collect. Our office may charge costs in anticipation of securing copies of your medical records, filing costs and related litigation expenses such as deposition costs, etc.