Law Office of Fred Martens: Policies and Guidelines

I feel it's important for new and prospective clients alike to be apprised of clearly defined office guidelines and expectations early in their relationship with legal counsel.  In order to: (1) optimize the time we'll spend working on your case together and (2) minimize your legal fee expenses and costs, please review the following:

Complementary Consultations and Required Documents:  I am happy to provide one half hour initial consultations for potential clients on a complementary basis.  However, all documentation and completed forms that were requested of you when your appointment was scheduled must be brought with you to your consultation.  I cannot assist you if I do not have the requisite paperwork and information that I need to evaluate your potential case.  While you may be able to recite general facts about your case from memory, documents and details provide the information I need to assess and form a legal opinion about your case.

Complementary Consultations and Legal Advice:  Absent a complete written and signed representation agreement in existence between us, I can give you a brief opinion as to how I think the law will apply to your potential case, but I cannot provide legal advice to you.  Additionally, unless you are a retained client, full attorney-client privilege may not apply.    

By Appointment Only:  Consultations and client meetings are held on a 'by appointment' basis only.  Because I spend a significant time away from the office working on cases and in court, please do not arrive for a consultation with me unless you have a scheduled appointment.  This will avoid disappointment and frustration for all parties concerned.   

Office Staff:  There is a central office area receptionist available to receive paperwork and documents from clients between the hours of 9:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.  If I am not in the office when you arrive to drop off your documents during these days and hours, the receptions agent will receive your documents and place them in my secure office.

Children and Non-Parties:  Time effectively spent focusing solely on legal casework with you is of the highest priority and utmost importance during scheduled office appointments.  From the attorney-client confidentiality and privilege perspectives, most legal issues are best discussed privately outside the presence of minor children and any other persons not involved with your legal matter.  Accordingly, children under the age of 18 are not permitted in my office during client consultations.  Unfortunately, there are no office staffmembers available onsite to supervise children.

Notice to All Bankruptcy Clients: Please keep in mind that flat fee based bankruptcy cases assume a rough average of the total number of hours projected to be expended on a case.  To keep these expended hours within a 'normal' range, I do not begin the data entry process for bankruptcy petitions until (1) client questionnaires have been fully completed and (2) all checklist documentation and activity requirements have been fully completed. 

I also assume that most bankruptcy clients need to have their petitions filed within 60 days of the initial consultation.  For clients that either have complex pre-filing planning issues, intend to file 60 days or more after the initial meeting or cannot file until at least 60 after the initial consultation meeting, you may wish to consider a supplemental hourly fee based pre-bankruptcy planning agreement with my office. 

I will try to answer as many questions as you have during the initial consultation, but once that initial consultation has taken place, you should be aware that I will not be able to spend an inordinate amount of time working with you after that consultation unless and until I have been retained to prepare your case.   

A flat fee bankruptcy agreement pertains to bankruptcy petition preparation and filing services that do not include more than a very limited amount of time spent on basic pre-petition financial planning matters.  If you have any questions about this policy, please let me know, and I'll provide you with copies of draft agreements so that you know up front what is included and is not included in a flat fee based agreement.  

Depending on the complexity of the case and my existing client load, it can take a few weeks to draft and file a bankruptcy petiton once I've received all preliminary checklist and questionnaire information.  Often, this is due to the fact that the initial documentation provided by the client leads to a discovery that additional information will be necessary to complete the petition prior to filing.

If you have legal action(s) pending against you, i.e. judgments or garnishments, you have direct control over how rapidly your case gets filed.  Due to other concurrent client casework commitments that cannot be jeopardized, I do not file 'emergency' skeletal bankruptcy petitions.   

What you should know about your case and your lawyer:  Every case I agree to take on is important.  When you hire me, I take very seriously my responsibility to thoroughly research your case facts, assess applicable laws, develop legal strategies and present you with appropriate options and recommendations.  As the client, it's ultimately your decision as to how to proceed in the matter given the legal advice you receive. 

If we are in agreement as to the means and budget to use in pursuit of your goals, I will work diligently to achieve those goals given the applicable statutes, rules and case holdings.  Much as we wish we could, lawyers often have limited control over the amount of time that will be needed to complete a case, often in large part because we cannot predict how much time the Court or opposing counsel's actions will require of us. 

That said, I cannot be any more diligent about getting your casework completed than you are about responding to questions and informational requests from my office.   Your involvement in the case is highly encouraged and will often determine a significant portion of the final cost and outcome.

Predicting the Future:  While I fully appreciate and understand the angst that can arise from being involved in legal proceedings, my crystal ball is about as good as yours in guaranteeing future results.  Once I have all of the case facts, I can often theorize as to the likelihood of success in a given matter, but I cannot realistically predict a guaranteed outcome in most, if not all cases.  Accordingly, please do not ask me to guarantee the outcome or results of a case, for I am precluded by doing so by common sense, experience and ethics rules alike.   

Communications:  I am not surprised that the number one general complaint from clients concerning attorneys is an overall lack of communication from the attorney to the client.  From my experience, I'm also fully aware of numerous cases I've had where clients have completely ignored emails and messages for multiple days or weeks.  In most cases, time is truly of the essence communicating and/or responding to legal communications.

When I receive information about your case, I will contact you timely and send a digital copy of the document(s).  If you have questions or need information from me, and I am not immediately available by phone or email, I will generally respond within 24 hours or sooner if the matter is truly urgent.  I expect my clients to check their e-mail at least daily and respond to my inquiries within 24 hours as well (absent extenuating circumstances). 

If the client ignores requests for information or does not provide me with what I need to furnish the Court or opposing counsel with a proper and complete response, the client may be effectively jeopardizing his or her own legal rights.  Again, I cannot be any more diligent or involved with the client's case than the client is.

Scope of Representation:  Your written representation agreement clearly defines the scope of the matter(s) for which you have retained my services.   If a new matter outside the scope of representation arises during the course of our attorney-client relationship, I will require a signed separate representation agreement for additional matters.  Please do not ask me to handle additional or ancillary matters for which I have not been retained.

If you have any questions or concerns about any of the above information, please contact me at (206) 300-2733, or email me at fred@fjmlaw.net .   

New and Potential Clients - Please read:

Every attorney does things a little bit differently. The following paragraphs will attempt to introduce you to the way my law office works and what you can expect from your attorney.

You may have noticed that there's a lot of information and documentation asked of you in a consumer case or bankruptcy petition filing. While I understand the time required of you to gather documentation and information may be significant, there are sound reasons.

For one, a bankruptcy petition filing is partially a contract entered into between the Debtor(s) and the Bankruptcy Court. In exchange for divulging accurate information about all of your assets and liabilities, the Court grants you a discharge of most, if not all of the debts listed in your petition. That's the deal.

In consumer debt defense cases, it's not about me 'getting even' with the creditor or debt collector on your behalf.  It's about my vigorously defending your case while pursuing those who would wantonly violate and gloss over State and Federal laws with unlawful 'buffalo and bully' tactics.  If I can recover costs and damages on your behalf in the process, all the better.  At the same time, you should know up front that this may or may not be possible.  It completely depends on the individual case facts. 

I also expect every client to be 100% forthcoming about disclosing accurate and truthful information, whether I'm defending you or preparing your bankruptcy petition. The time to discover missing facts and information is not at your 341 Meeting of Creditors or in front of the Judge arguing a motion. Speaking from observation, being evasive and speaking in half-truths are not tactics you'll want to employ.

The other part of this 'contract' involves you and your attorney. Among other information gathering tools, I use a checklist and questionnaire in bankruptcy cases to gather client financial data prior to beginning work on a bankruptcy petition. The checklist is also used as a tool for two-way communications; as document requirements are satisfied, the checklist item is crossed off.

In consumer debt defense cases, the more documents you can get to me, the better odds we'll have of successfully defeating the collector's suit.  Those documents include past account statements, contract documents, printed terms and conditions, collection letters, notes from collection phone calls and recent credit reports.  Often times, where significant documentation has been kept by the consumer, we'll have much more information than the creditor's attorney will - and that's the exact position you want to be in defending one of these cases. 

As I review client provided documents in a bankruptcy case, additional information or documentation requests are communicated back to the client via an updated checklist. I've found that this method keeps both attorney and client(s) on 'the same page' with respect to any remaining activities left to be done pre-petition. I tend to spend time looking for things a case trustee might inquire about and hope my clients like unpleasant surprises about as much as I do. Thus, you'll notice that I tend to keep things highly organized and detailed in the case preparation process.

You also need to be aware that I don't begin the bankruptcy petition drafting process until all of the initially required documents have been provided. Because each case has varying issues and levels of complexity, the 'due diligence' process may require additional ongoing documentation requests and fact gathering during the petition preparation process.

Depending on the case, it may take as little as a week or as much as three weeks to get your petition drafted and ready to file - once I determine that I have enough information to get started. There are other timing considerations involved in planning a petition filing on a certain day - for example, in a Chapter 7 case, when the client's cash holdings are at their lowest - because there can be tight limits on the amount of cash that can be exempted.

When one month changes over to a new month, several aspects of a bankruptcy petition can be affected. New information requirements become necessary, requiring more time to update petition data. Once we pick the filing month, it's essential that you make all best efforts to get the required information to me quickly, as time is of the essence in getting the petition filed, thus stopping creditor harassment.

Working as efficiently as possible enables me to retain most bankruptcy cases on an affordable flat fee basis. There can also be Court imposed limits on what fee amounts can be charged in a bankruptcy filing. Where the petition preparation process is dragged out needlessly due to client delays and factors beyond my control, in rare cases I may elect to terminate representation altogether. I can only be as diligent about getting your petition prepared as you are about getting all of the required information to me in a timely manner.

I know that the prospect of a bankruptcy filing can cause people to feel embarrassed, humiliated and ashamed. Nobody wants to be in such a position. If you're at all interested in my personal take on the matter, the bankruptcy process isn't about guilt, judgment or failures. For one reason or another, the financial numbers simply don't add up anymore.

Usually, clients are forced into filing bankruptcy because of (1) divorce, (2) loss of a job, (3) catastrophic medical bills or (4) accelerated creditor actions. Most of the petitions I've filed are for clients that had little if any control over the financial events that led them to my office door. Bankruptcy is a safety valve built into our legal 'system' to protect you from creditors taking everything you own.

If there's something confusing or unclear about certain questions being asked during your petition preparation, or the documents I require, feel free to seek clarification from me. You'll find that I'm most effective when my clients stay involved in their cases. I tend to work with electronic documents (.pdfs) and email as much as possible, so please check your email at least daily once you've become a client. I'm also generally accessible by phone during normal working hours unless I'm with clients or in Court.

For further information, feel free to contact me at (206) 300-2733, or by email at fred@fjmlaw.net.  I look forward to helping you resolve your financial issues and get through the legal process as quickly and painlessly as possible!