Suffering through a major life upheaval is painful. You shouldn’t have to worry about the cost of representation exceeding your budget. We offer unbundled legal services and installment plans and flat fees when we can.
If you’re unsure if Esser Kent is able to represent you, feel free to call our office before scheduling a consultation.
Because of the time and effort we put into getting to know you, we do not offer free initial consultations.
We will charge and bill for the actual time spent on your case. If a task is performed by a legal assistant or paralegal, you are charged an administrative or paralegal rate, rather than the attorney’s rate. The billable rate includes all the costs of running a law office (overhead, salaries, non-excessive paper copies, internet). Our rates are competitive with those of other Western Massachusetts law firms. Most legal services are billed hourly, however in some instances when appropriate we can charge a flat fee – see below.
This includes drafting of document, review/signing meeting, and one round of revisions.
This includes drafting of Joint Petition and related documents and review/signing meeting.
This includes drafting based on information provided by the client, a review meeting, advice about best practices, and one round of revisions.
In Massachusetts, a Joint Petition for Divorce is presented at an uncontested hearing for approval by a Judge. An attorney can assist in this hearing by preparing you for what to expect and answering any questions the Judge may ask about your agreement.
Before your case goes to trial it must be “pretried” before the Judge. The Judge requires you to list all of your contested and uncontested issues, along with witnesses and exhibits, in a memo that meets certain requirements. This memo must be submitted before the pretrial conference.
Often you need to summarize the facts and evidence in your case succinctly and powerfully. We will help you to write your own affidavit - or draft it for you. Depending upon the complexity of the affidavit, costs will range from $300 to $1500.
When your case is in court you can get information from the other party. These written requests are called “discovery.” We can work with you to write discovery requests in order to get you the information you need to make your case. Costs will depend upon the number of issues and overall complexity of your case.
220 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01002
(413) 774-7085
Monday-Thursday 9:00am-5:00pm
Friday 9:00am-1:00pm
