The deadline you have not heard of is the one that ends the claim
Late summer is a reasonable moment to check which of your open problems has a clock on it, because several run far shorter than people assume.A volunteer mediator on the moment a case is worth settling
Twelve years of small claims mediation, and a consistent view about what people are actually arguing over by the time they reach a courthouse.Notes made at the time beat memory. What counts as evidence in a consumer dispute
Most people arrive at a dispute with a strong account and weak documentation, and the two are treated very differently by everyone who decides anything.Retainer, trust account, billing increment. Reading a legal fee agreement properly
The words in a fee agreement have precise meanings that differ from their everyday ones, and three of them determine what a matter will cost.Bring these six things to a first legal consultation and the hour pays for itself
A first meeting is bought by the hour and is usually spent on facts you could have supplied in advance, which is an expensive way to organize a file.Hourly, flat fee, or contingency. Which billing arrangement fits which legal problem
The same matter quoted three ways produces three different risk profiles for the client, and only one of them is usually right for a given problem.The contractor stopped answering. The state licensing board answered instead
A half-finished bathroom, a cashed deposit and no return calls. The route that worked was not small claims court and did not involve an attorney.Complaint stalled at the call center? The order to escalate in, rung by rung
Escalation works when each rung is exhausted in order and documented, and fails when the third rung is reached before the first one is finished.A neighbor's regraded yard, a survey, and the letter that cost less than a lawsuit
Water arriving where it never used to arrive is a common dispute with an uncommon feature: it is often settled by two hours of an attorney's time.