Fees

Effective legal representation may seem expensive, but attorneys’ fees are no more costly than those charged by other professionals and they are always less costly than failing to protect your interests. Although this does not make paying for an attorney any easier for the individual or business trying to make ends meet, we will do our best to keep your legal costs to a minimum. To help ease cash flow problems, we accept all major credit cards, PayPal, offer affordable payment plans, and we offer special reduced fees to those who qualify under the Montgomery County Bar Association low income guidelines. We also offer economical retainer plans for our business clients.

We were one of the first law firms in Maryland to offer a “hybrid” or combined flat fee and hourly fee Retainer Agreements. We pioneered the use of a “check the box” type Retainer Agreements where our clients are offered the option of selecting from a list of services that they want or need so that they may limit their fees and costs where appropriate. We also pioneered the substitution of hourly charges with flat fees for repetitive work such as: discovery requests, subpoenas, emails, telephone calls, and much more. If your case is appropriate for contingent fee billing, you pay only for those expenses that we incur in the prosecution of your lawsuit, and will never pay an attorney’s fee unless the outcome of your case is in your favor.

Over the years, the one feedback that we rarely hear from our clients is: you’re too expensive. At Shechtel and Associates, P.A., you will not be charged exorbitant administrative fees, document handling fees, or for more than one attorney working on your case at a time. We never “double up” when two or more professionals are working on your case. We believe that our clients should only be billed rates that are fair and equitable.

Here’s a tip that will ultimately save you legal money: that you retain Shechtel and Associates, P.A. to advise you on your legal rights and obligations before entering into any large contract or loan agreement. We recommend that you never sign any agreement that involves real estate without contacting us first. It is always less costly to have us review the proposed agreement before you sign than after. Remember what your mother told you: “never sign a contract without reading it first.” Well not only do we agree with mom, but we at Shechtel and Associates, P.A. believe that you should take mom’s advice one step further… Send us the proposed agreement before you sign, because afterwards it’s always too late. It is never a pleasant experience to discover that there were obligations hidden within the agreement that you were not made aware of at the time of contracting, or worse, you are being sued. Here, the old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is most apropos.