Initial phone consults are always free. We do consider alternative fee arrangements in certain circumstances.
The fee for an office or virtual consultation is a one-time event – essentially a flat fee. You are paying for our time and legal advice.
Being able to accurately plan for and predict legal costs at least provides some piece of mind when facing a proposed removal, demotion, or suspension. Fortunately, replies to such proposed adverse actions lend themselves to fixed or flat fee arrangements. Simply put, to draft a written reply and present an oral reply to a proposed adverse action we charge you a flat rate for that predefined service.
Because employment disputes that involve administrative litigation – Federal sector EEO complaints, MSPB appeals, DOHA hearings – are not finite in time or routine, we bill those types of matters on an hourly basis. You pay a set hourly rate for the time we spend on your matter, billed in 6-minute increments. For FEDS policy holders, WIFLE members, Veterans, and client referrals, we apply a 10% discount to our hourly rates. In order to further our noneconomic goals to protect and enforce Federal employees’ civil and Constitutional rights in the workplace, we have set our hourly rates below our prevailing market rate for the Washington, D.C. area (as reflected in the Laffey Matrix prepared by the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the District of Columbia).
Unfortunately, commercials, television shows, and movies, provide false impressions about how most attorneys are paid. While most commercials, television shows, and movies frequently present attorneys being paid on contingency, in reality, most attorneys are paid on an hourly or flat fee basis. From an economic standpoint, a lawyer would only be interested in your case on contingency basis if there is potential for a sizeable monetary award at the end of the case, and there is a good chance that you will be able to prevail. Most employment disputes do not necessarily lend themselves to this model. In fact, in employment defense cases –proposed adverse actions, administrative investigations, or denials or revocations of a security clearance – there is no monetary award available. In order to not limit potential solutions to an employment dispute, and to emphasize our role as Problem-solvers, we typically do not handle cases on a contingency basis.
There are plenty of reasons you might need a lawyer’s support. Talk to us. If we are unable to help, we will point you in the right direction. Initial phone consultations are always free.