Amir Tavakkoli

Hello. While I cannot get into the specifics of your case because of professional rules of conduct, what I can say attorneys are only able to do as much as the LAW allows them to do. We DO NOT make the laws and have to abide by controlling laws of the state. For example, if the law states that ANY PROPERTY acquired after the marriage is considered community property (meaning that it belongs to the marriage), we don't have a magic wand to change the law and turn the property into separate property. While we fight to get the most we can including a disproportionate share of the property, we cannot just turn community property into separate property and give 100% of ALL property to one spouse. We are upfront with our clients since the very beginning before they hire us about expectations and reality and keep records of such. We offer free consults so that if a potential client does not like what we are saying about the case, they can simply not hire us and would not take a financial hit. Also, while we can give all the advise in the world of what a client should do, at the end of the day, the client is the one that makes the ultimate decision. For example, if a client tells us they no longer wish to continue with the case if there is a possibility that the other spouse may get something out of the marriage, while we recommend against just dropping the case after being almost done, if the client insists they want to drop the case, we cannot keep the case open against the client's wishes. Furthermore, there are certain procedure that need to be followed in a case. These are called the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. If the court requires service by hand delivery, we cannot simply just mail it UNLESS we first acquire the court's permission. Lastly, our fees are always explained in detail on the contract and in the free consultation. We charge hourly for every family law matter and the hourly rate generally includes any time spent on the case inside and outside of the court. We generally don't charge if the client is simply calling to get an update on the case or calling regarding billing, but if the client continuously calls or emails with different questions, then we charge for our time. If a client decided to drop the case after one year or at any time after substantial work has been done on the case, we give a refund if there is any money left over in the retainer that has not been used.