First, each case is unique.  Therefore, it is necessary to meet the potential client prior to being able to give an accurate fee quote.  If your case is relatively simple and straightforward, why would you want to pay the same advanced fee as the person who has a more complex matter?  If I just quote a standard amount over the phone, chances are you may be paying much more up front than is necessary for your case.

On the other hand, if you have a very complex case, it would still be unfair for me to quote a standard advanced fee amount.  Potential clients want to know an estimate of what their total legal fees might be.  Potential clients tend to assume that the advanced fee deposit will cover most of their legal fees.  If you have a complex matter, and I quote you a standard advanced fee deposit, you will likely be mad if that deposit runs out much earlier than you anticipated.  By meeting in person, and discussing the specifics of your case, I can give you a better idea just how much money your case is going to take from start to finish.  By discussing the specifics of your case, and your personal situation, I can better tailor an advanced fee or payment plan that will help you reach your legal goals in the most financially efficient manner.

Second, hiring a lawyer just based on cost can be a costly mistake for a potential client.  Potential clients who are simply looking to hire  the lawyer with the lowest advanced fee deposit are setting themselves up for a bad lawyer-client relationship.  Your legal matter is important.  You are going to be working closely with your attorney and it is important to know whether or not you and you attorney will work well together.  Different client and different attorneys have different personalities.  Knowing that your attorney is on the same page as you is key for obtaining your legal goals.  Hiring an attorney based simply on price undermines the importance of your case, and indicates that the potential client is more concerned with money than with the outcome of their case.  Both are important.

Finally, for some of the same reasons just mentioned, you don’t want an attorney who is willing to take your case simply based on the payment of a standard advanced fee.  If a lawyer says over the phone that he or she will take your case as long as you pay a certain amount, all that lawyer cares about is the money.  You then are an income stream for the lawyer, as opposed to a client.  A lawyer should take the time to sit down with you and evaluate your specific situation before deciding whether or not they can help you.

The obvious negative side of this set up is that the client never knows exactly how much his or her case will end up costing.  At least not until the case has been completed.  The and lawyer can only guess how much work the case is going to require, and the client never knows exactly when their advanced deposit will reach a balance of zero.  On most cases, some month require more work than other months, so a client whose deposit has only been billed $100 in one month, may find that their deposit has been billed much more the next month.  It just depends on the timing and demands of the client’s case, and the uncertainty can be very unsettling for the client.

The one big benefit to hourly billing is that the lawyer gets paid only for time actually spent on the case.  If the case settles early, the client obviously pays much less than if the case takes longer.  However, some people believe that hourly billing encourages the attorney to put unnecessary time and effort into cases, or to make them last longer than is necessary. At Hagner Law Office, S.C., I do everything I can to keep my client’s fees as reasonable as possible, regardless of whether they are paying hourly, or on a flat-fee.  Practical and professional legal advice does not have to cost an unreasonable amount of money.  The client determines what their goal is for the outcome of their case, and I do everything in my power to achieve that goal as efficiently as possible.

Client often prefer flat fee billing because it allows them to know exactly how much their case will cost from the beginning.  Unlike hourly billing, where the cost is directly related to the amount of time the attorney works on the case, flat-fee billing eliminates the uncertainty of not knowing how much the case could end up costing.  Flat-fee billing also reduces the number of instances in which a case ends up costing the client more than the client anticipated.

The one downside that clients often talk about with flat-fee billing is that the cost is the same, no matter how many hours of work the attorney spends on a case.  In the example above, the criminal client pays $1,000 for the case if it gets dismissed at the first hearing, or if it takes several motions and hearings to achieve the same result.  Some clients feel that if the case gets dismissed earlier in the process, the fee should be reduced.  However, flat fee billing assumes that the outcome is worth the same to the client, regardless of when it is achieved.  Stated another way, getting a case dismissed and off the client’s record should be worth a lot to the client, regardless of how much work it takes to get that accomplished.

Finally, some clients are concerned that flat-fee billing encourages the attorney to settle the case as quickly as possible.  The theory is that the attorney will not want to put much effort into the case since the fee will be the same no matter how much work is done.  You should be confident that I will zealously represent you and provide you with practical legal advise no matter which billing method you choose.  The choice to settle a case, or to proceed to trial, is a choice that only the client can make.  I will make sure that you have all the information necessary to make the best decision for your case, so that the best outcome can be achieved.

I know what you are wondering, isn’t a lawyer going to cost me money? Obviously, the answer to that question is “yes, a lawyer will cost you money.” But a divorce or custody battle has effects that will reach far beyond the period of time in which you are actively fighting your case in court.

If there are kids involved, the issue of child support will be present until the kids are adults. Hiring a lawyer can help ensure that you receive the full amount of child support to which you are entitled. Or, on the other hand, hiring a lawyer can help ensure that you do not pay more child support than you really should.

If you do not consult with someone who really knows the law, you could end up paying too much, or receiving too little. Even small numbers add up quickly. Let’s say that you do not hire a lawyer, and as a result, you agree to pay $25 a month more than you really should be paying. That is an extra $300 a year that you are paying out of your pocket.

The same goes for maintenance or family support payments in divorce or legal separation cases. If you are unrepresented, and end up stuck in an unfair arrangement, the money will add up quickly. Even if you are only paying $100 a month more in family support or maintenance than you should, that is $1,200.00 a year you are not keeping. Multiply that by 2, 5, or even more years, and you easily would have made back the money you paid your lawyer.

Do not be convinced that you can represent yourself as well as a lawyer can. Do not believe that the other party or other attorney is going to be up front with you about what the law really says. They are looking out for themselves. You should do the same. Hire a lawyer, and potentially save thousands over the long term.

Have a question, contact Attorney Hagner today.

During on hearing in particular, the tenant/defendant actually had a good defense to her eviction. However, the landlord/plaintiff, wanted to introduce what seemed to be a falsified ledger which appeared to show that the tenant had not been paying her rent. When the landlord’s attorney asked the judge to admit the document into evidence, he asked the tenant “do you have any objection to this document being received into evidence, and being considered by the Court?”

The tenant then stated that she objected to the seemingly false document being considered by the judge. However, the judge then asked, “what is your legal basis for your objection?”. It was obvious to myself and any attorney present that there were several legal objections that could be made about the admissibility of the document. However, since the tenant was not a lawyer, and was not represented by a lawyer, she was unable to tell the judge exactly why she was objecting to the document.

Since she could not articulate a proper legal objection, the judge allowed the document to admitted into evidence. Even though it was clear to the judge that the admissibility of the document was questionable, the judge does not represent either party. The judge is in no way obligated to help either party make their legal arguments. Therefore, the judge did not step in to help the tenant, who was not represented by a lawyer.

So the answer is yes, anytime you go to court, you should hire a lawyer to help you present your case. Only your lawyer will be able to help you properly explain to the court why you should win your case.

It is necessary to remember three things, before you decide to represent yourself in court:

1) The judge has no duty to protect a party who is not represented by a lawyer. The judge cannot help you prepare a legal strategy. If you do not know the proper way to ask for the legal remedy that you are seeking, it is not the judge’s job to help you. Judges can only make rulings on issues that are properly raised, so if you do not know how to ask the court for what you want, you are not going to get it. This means that it is likely that the judge will rule for the other party, especially if he or she has a lawyer. A lawyer will know how to ask the court for the outcome that you want, and may also think of options that you never knew existed. The law is complex; there’s a reason that lawyers go to law school and have to be licensed in order to represent clients.

2) Once a judge has made a decision, it is hard to get the decision overturned. In a lot of cases, there is a presumption that a judge’s initial ruling is the correct one. Therefore, if the judge has ruled against you, there are certain obstacles that you must overcome in order to get the ruling changed.

Note: I said it is hard, but not impossible, to get the decision changed. So if you have tried to represent yourself in Milwaukee, Waukesha, or Washington county court, and are not satisfied with the results, contact me to discuss your options. There are often time limits that begin running as soon as the judge makes the initial decision, so do not wait, contact me today.

3) A bad ruling can cost you more than you would have spent to hire a lawyer. If you are getting divorced, and your spouse is requesting child support or maintenance (what we used to call alimony), there is a lot of money at stake. Having a lawyer advocating for you will help ensure that the judge does not order you to pay more than what is fair under the law. If you do not know how to properly argue for what is fair, then you could end up paying more in child support or maintenance than you should. If you are ordered to pay even $50 or $100 a month more than you should, this will quickly add up to a significant amount of money. Most likely your overpayment will exceed what you would have paid your lawyer.

If you are going through criminal proceedings, how much is it worth to you to get an acquittal? How much is it worth to you to avoid jail time and get probation instead? If your freedom is worth anything to you, you need to make sure that you have a lawyer with you when you are in court. And the same goes for civil cases too. The difference between a favorable and unfavorable settlement can easily equal more than what you would have paid for legal representation. Getting a case dismissed is even more valuable. But a judge will not dismiss a case without being properly asked.

Remember, do not go to court without a lawyer. If you need a lawyer to go with you to court, or to help you fixed what has happened when you represented yourself, call me today, and let Hagner Law Office handle your case.

In some cases, 90 days is not enough time to determine if the marriage can be saved. The parties may wish to continue exploring the possibility of saving the marriage, while enjoying the structure that child support, physical placement and other orders can provide. This is where a Legal Separation can be beneficial. The process for obtaining a legal separation is essentially the same as getting a divorce. After a final hearing, or upon stipulation by the parties, the Court will enter orders for child support, physical placement, property division and maintenance. The difference is that, if a judgment for legal separation is entered, the parties remain married. The parties can lead separate lives, but they are still married and are not allowed to re-marry.

Under Wisconsin Statutes 767.35(4), a legal separation can be revoked if the parties reconcile. The parties file a stipulation to the Court informing the Court of the parties reconciliation, and if accepted by the Court, the judgment of legal separation is revoked. The Court can then make whatever orders are necessary to return the parties to their pre-filing status. However, if reconciliation is not possible, section 767.35(5) allows the parties to convert the legal separation into a divorce, ending the marriage. The legal separation can be converted at any time, if the parties agree. If only one party wants to have the legal separation converted to a divorce, they can ask the Court for the conversion no earlier than one year after the judgment of legal separation was entered.

Some final key differences between a divorce and legal separation are: A divorce can be granted if only one of the parties testifies that the marriage is irretrievably broken. A legal separation requires that both parties ask the Court for the legal separation. If a divorce is granted, the parties can remarry, but only after 6 months have passed since the entering of the Judgment of Divorce. Parties who are legally separated cannot remarry until the separation has been converted to a divorce, and the required 6 months has passed. Contact Hagner Law Office, S.C. for answers to any other questions you may have regarding your divorce or legal separation options.

This is even more true when it comes to co-signing a loan. If you co-sign a loan, and the borrower fails to make the payments on time, you are responsible for the payments. A co-signer is treated the same as if they are the actual borrower. The lender does not even have to attempt to collect from the original borrower before they sue the co-signer. Once payments have been missed, and the loan is in default, the lender can sue either or both people who signed the loan. This means a co-signer can end up paying the entire amount of the loan.

And they will sue the co-signer, because there is a reason that you were asked to co-sign the loan in the first place. The person seeking the loan has a bad credit history. Or they have no credit history. But you have a good credit history, and that is why the lender wants your signature on the loan. When the loan is in default, they are going to go after the person with the better credit history, which is the co-signer. A better credit history usually means that the co-signer is more responsible with money, and has a better income or more assets. Therefore, the lender is not going to waste their time suing the other party. They don’t have to.

It is hard to say no to friends and relatives who ask you to co-sign loans. But remember, there is a reason that they cannot get a loan on their own. It is not your fault, you are not the one who made their credit bad. Do not feel bad for telling them that you will not co-sign their loan. Their anger or disappointment will not be as bad as what you feel when you are hit with a lawsuit seeking a judgment for thousands of dollars that your friend or relative did not repay.

If you have co-signed a loan, and are now being sued, give me a call. While there are few defenses in these situations, it is worth sitting down with an experienced lawyer to see if anything can be done to improve your case.