Fees

When you purchase groceries, you receive a receipt, which lists each and every item you purchased. How about legal services billing? Unbelievably, some firms still do not provide their clients with sufficiently descriptive and itemized billing statements, but instead they engage in block billing (i.e. multiple tasks and services are combined under one time entry). González Law Team provides its clients with monthly-itemized billing statements. The billing statements describe specifically what services were rendered on your behalf each day, and the time spent on such services. That way you can keep track of each item for which you are charged. You will know you are being billed reasonable fees for work you know has actually been done on your behalf. This enables you to ask questions about your fees if you so desire. Clients should know what they are paying for.

One of the biggest insults is if a client calls his or her attorney to ask about a charge and then gets billed for the call. González Law Team will never bill you to discuss any questions you may have regarding any of the fees or costs charged on your account. Not all attorneys provide detailed written fee agreements to their clients. This can lead to confusion and very expensive surprises. González Law Team. will provide you with a written fee agreement up front. Our attorneys will discuss the fee structure with you in order to avoid any surprises or confusion.

You do not have to pay a huge retainer fee at González Law Team to obtain quality legal representation. At many firms, one is required to pay a large retainer up front. Such retainer fees are required by law to be deposited to the law firm’s trust account. The interest on such funds does not go to the client, but rather goes to programs sponsored by the State Bar of Arizona. González Law Team provides for a smaller deposit than many firms. In some cases, no deposit is required at all. Some firms also include a “non-refund” clause in their fee agreements. Such firms state that a certain portion of your retainer is “earned upon receipt.” This means that the firm may get to keep your money regardless of whether they do the work. González Law Team does not do this. Our fee agreement makes it clear that we do not get paid until the work is done. See “Representation Options” above.