Fees | High Net Worth Divorce Lawyer Sarasota

Our Fees and Costs

Free Initial Phone Consultation

We offer a free initial phone consultation for 15 minutes to discuss your divorce or family law problem.

Initial Office Visit Fee

The Initial Office Visit fee is $150 for 60 minutes. From 61 minutes on, the Initial Office Visit fee is charged at our normal hourly rate of $425.00 per hour. The Firm’s fee policy is described and explained in detail at the time of your Initial Office Visit in a New Client Information Letter which will be given to you with our Engagement Letter retainer fee agreement. Additionally, estimated total legal fees are quoted to you upon request at your Initial Office Visit.

Types of Fee Structure:

Hourly Rate: An hourly rate is an hourly charge for all of the attorney’s time devoted to handling a specific case. All legal matters handled by the Law Office of Matthew Z. Martell, P.A. are billed at an hourly rate.

Current Hourly Rates:

Attorney: $425.00

Paralegals: $140.00

Unlike most of our competitors, we do not charge for regular copies, regular postage, faxes, long distance phone calls, parking fees, meals before, during or after court hearings, depositions, mediations, or trials; credit card processing fees, Westlaw or Lexis/Nexis computer legal research charges, etc. We consider those charges to be normal office overhead expenses which are just the costs of doing business. Additionally, we only bill our travel time at our paralegal rate. Most other law firms charge you at the attorney(s) hourly rate from the moment they go out the office door to the moment they walk back through it. More importantly, also unlike most of our competitors, we provide detailed and responsive regular billing statements to our clients, so they know what is going on in their case and exactly what they have been charged for regarding legal services.

Fees: We believe that providing periodic detailed legal bills on a regular basis is beneficial for both the client and our law firm. In short, you are notified and able to review the work that we have been doing for you and there are also no hidden surprises. Oftentimes, we hear from our clients about prior experiences they had with other lawyers where they did not receive a bill for up to three months. Then, out of the blue, they receive an extremely large bill with little documentation regarding the work that was done. Subsequently, this can lead to serious problems between a client and his/her attorney. We attempt to do the opposite of this bad billing practice in order to prevent such problems or any misunderstandings regarding your legal fees and your legal bills.

PLEASE NOTE: Hourly rates are reviewed from time to time and adjusted when appropriate. When an adjustment is required, then you will be notified and advised accordingly.