Rates & Billing

Rates:

Our rates are structured to provide you with high quality legal service at the lowest possible cost. Our philosophy is to keep private legal representation affordable.

In general, we bill you for the time spent on your case; for some cases, we are able to offer a flat fee payment. At the end of your initial consultation, we will let you know what fees are required to hire us.

Our current hourly rates are:

Arbitration and mediation services are billed at $350/hour.

Parenting coordination (with Lisa Shapson) is billed at $300/hour.

Engagement Letter Agreement and Advanced Fees:

If you would like to hire us after your consultation, we will ask you for advanced fees based on what you would like us to do and our assessment of the amount of time it may take to get started. This amount is not a flat fee – your actual legal fees and costs may be more or less. If unanticipated or new issues come up that render our estimate substantially inaccurate, additional advanced fees may be required to continue representing you.

The advanced fee amount will be discussed at the end of your initial consultation and reflected in our engagement letter agreement. When you send back the signed engagement letter agreement, we also require payment of the advanced fees by check, money order or credit card (American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa), which we then deposit into a trust account in accordance with the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct.

Billing:

You will receive monthly billing statements from us which show, in increments of 0.1 hours (six minutes), the work done on your case and the corresponding amount of funds transferred from your trust balance to BKW Family Law LLC as payment. If your case is active, you are required to keep a minimum of $1,000 in your trust account and we expect you to automatically replenish the trust account when your balance dips below this amount. If you have money in your trust account at the conclusion of your case, we will refund the balance to you.