Law Offices of Craig Willford

Fees, costs and methods of payment

Data as of May 5, 2010

Attorney fees accrue on various theories:

• In Probate Decedent's Estates, there are Statutory Fees and Extraordinary Fees. Each is commonly paid at the close of the estate, but on occasion, with the Court's permission, a portion of statutory fees can be ordered paid before the case is ordered distributed and, again in the Court's discretion, some or all of the extraordinary fees can also be paid before the case is ordered distributed. For more information on these kinds of fees, click on the hyperlinks above.
• In Conservatorship matters, the Court has the power to award attorney fees payable from the Conservatee's funds, if the Conservatorship Estate has adequate funds to pay such fees. Since the payment of such fees from the Conservatorship Estate is not guaranteed to be awarded by the Court nor guaranteed to be awarded in the amount the attorney asserts is the fee earned and further since the fee in substantially all cases is paid a year or more after services are rendered, I require that I be paid in advance, as-you-go, from funds of my client. Then the client can seek to be reimbursed those fees by a request to the Court that the award of attorney fees that the Court might make be payable so that it reimburses the client the fees he or she had paid in advance. For more information on these kinds of fees, click on the hyperlinks above.
• In Trust estates being wound up and dissolved, the fees are payable from the Trust Estate itself to the extent that my services are rendered to the Trustee. To the extent that the Trust is not Court supervised, you will still have to report the fees that you pay me to the beneficiaries along with your required accounting. To the extent that the Trust is Court supervised, the Court will have the authority to approve the payment from the Trust Estate of attorney fees. As a consequence, the same rules about payment of attorney fees as are applicable in Conservatorship Estates apply. For more information on these kinds of fees, click on the hyperlinks above.
• In Estate Planning, I commonly do drafting initially on a flat rate basis, while amendments are done on an hourly fee basis. For more information on these kinds of fees, click on the hyperlinks above.
• My current hourly rates: my current rates for attorney fees and my paralegal fees are discussed in this hyperlink.
• Various hourly fee matters: For more information on these matters, click on the hyperlink above.
• Various contingency fee matters: For more information on these kinds of matters and fees, click on the hyperlink above.
• Payment expectation: This hyperlink discusses what you should expect regarding the payment of fees and costs during the pendency of your matter.
• Relative to the tax deductibility of fees paid, click here for more information on this issue.

This page and all pages of the www.craigwillford.com web site is copyright by Craig Willford on various dates; this page in 2005 and 2010.