The Flat Fee: Several years ago I dropped my car off to be worked on at a shop where I have traded for years. The owner, teasingly, told me he would look the car over and get back to me about a price. But he thought a $1000 retainer would be a good starting point and he would just bill me hourly. He was kidding and poking me about the legal system in general. But his comments got me thinking: his services are valuable to me, he is very experienced, I expect him to know how to fix my car and he quotes me a flat fee. So why didn't I do the same? I have over 20 years of experience in the legal trenches - from traffic tickets, to real estate closings, to murder trials, to injury trials, to dividing marital assets to discharging debts in bankruptcy to arguing before the Court of Appeals. I have a good, experienced idea of what to expect from the legal system and particular fact situations, so why not quote clients a flat fee? This in mind, for the past few years I have tried to re-invent my legal practice with a flat fee structure. Sometimes this is simply impossible to do and I tell this to the client and I tell them why. But often a flat fee is in everybody's interest: the client establishes a limit; the lawyer wants to get the thing finished. And in a small town like Asheville you do a good job, the word spreads and world comes to your door. You hurry and do a bad job and you cannot give your services away in the future.

Better, Faster, Cheaper. But flat fees are only part of the story. In the past five (5) years, my client's world has exploded with alternative options for legal services and increasingly powerful home technology - computers, scanners, printers - to handle their legal matters themselves. So to offer a client value you have to be both faster and better than what they can do themselves. Today clients expect and demand faster responses (email), more information and cheaper prices. So my office has invested a lot of time in developing computer systems to meet these increased expectations. We work hard at this and get better and faster each week. This allows us to be very competitive with our pricing for legal services. That's why we post our prices for everyone to see - to allow you to shop and compare the cost of legal services. We want your business and will work hard to earn your respect and trust.

Appointments & Follow Up. Office appointments are often necessary but rarely an efficient use of time - especially your time. This is why we use telephone appointments and questionnaires whenever possible. And we understand part of our service is to address your questions in a timely manner; follow up speed is important to you. So we get you to use email whenever possible. But whether it be by email, phone call or letter, we try to get an answer to your question as soon as possible. Because at the end of your case our goal is to hear this: "I liked my lawyer. And I liked the staff. Everyone was friendly, informative, and they did a good job at keeping me in the loop. They didn't waste time, were good to work with, got it done and I would use them again."

Hourly Rates. But some cases can only be handled with an hourly billing arrangement. In such cases I bill at $200/hr and, at all times work against a $2500 retainer and/or direct credit card billing. And we do our best to keep you in the "cost of services" loop so you will quickly know - each email will have a time summary - what we are doing and how much it is costing you. We do not want you to ever be surprised by the cost of our service. And the best way to accomplish this is with good, frequent communications.