First and foremost, we have chosen to maintain a small firm to best serve our clients. There are many types of family law firms out there. Many of the larger firms “acquire” a client and then numerous attorneys and staff in the office assist that client. What we hear from many of our clients who have left these type of firms is that they must tell their story to each of the people who work on their case (and pay to have each new staff member listen to their story). Not only is this very inefficient and frustrating for clients, it can become very expensive. Further, rather than having one person focused on your case utilizing various tactics to finalize your matter, you have numerous hands usually focused on a document or hearing or other event rather than finalizing your matter. On the other hand, there are many attorneys out there that are a “one man show” without a paralegal or legal assistant which can be very costly as you are paying attorney rates to have many basic tasks completed which a paralegal or legal assistant can do for 1/3 of the price.
In our office, Anna is the only attorney that handles your matter. Deanna, our paralegal will work with you to prepare documents and is the only staff member who will be working with you. Finally, Jill, our legal assistant, forwards all correspondence to and from our office to our clients, informs clients of upcoming hearings and other dates, and is available to help with any other task. Our office functions efficiently without duplication or excess. Further, our paralegal rate is a mere $125.00 per hour and our legal assistant does not charge for her time. Therefore, our firm provides effective representation at a reasonable price.
The Law Offices of Anna Brace for your free consultation
Many family law firms have policy and procedure in each case. At The Law Office of Anna C. Brace we understand that your family law case is different and we do not treat each case the same. An example of this is in many large firms, standard discovery is propounded in every case since this discovery is often the “bread and butter” for the family law firm. Sometimes such discovery is absolutely necessary, but many times this type of discovery is a colossal waste of time (not only prolonging your matter, but requiring clients to obtain voluminous amounts of documents) and money. Nothing frustrates a good client more than unnecessary discovery.
At the Law Offices of Anna C. Brace we discuss each aspect of your case such as service of process (one of the most unnecessary and upsetting starts to a divorce) and discovery. If possible, we attempt to limit the unnecessary and focus on those matters which make good economic sense pursuing. At The Law Office of Anna C. Brace, we work for you and we believe that with some guidance, it should be up to the client which goals they wish to pursue and we allow the client to make these choices after we explain the possible benefit, detriment, and the costs involved.
At your initial consultation, we discuss your needs and the items which must be accomplished to meet your goals. We sit down and establish an Action Plan. Both the client and the office maintain a copy of the Action Plan for future reference. Many of our clients who have left other attorneys often tell us an attorney promised to do certain things and never did. Upon retaining our office, the Action Plan is again forwarded to the client and Anna and the client have a telephone call whereby they review the Action Plan and discuss any changes to the Plan. As changes occur in your case, both the Law Office of Anna C. Brace and the Client are responsible to inform each other of changes to the Action Plan. We find that this method is an effective method to allow the client to understand what must be done to accomplish their goal of finalizing their matter and to determine where we are in meeting our client’s goals.