Travis Turner

At Piper & Turner, PLLC, we are always mindful of our client's financial resources and their ability to fund their litigation. Sometimes this means that lawyer and expert fees will come from the community estate and sometimes it means a client will have to borrow money from their family or a loved one. During the initial consultation our lawyers explain the process and the resulting costs of that process. It is made clear that litigation is not cheap. Sometimes it is our client that runs up the costs and sometimes it is the other side that runs up the costs. Some cases require experts to complete reports while some do not. Each case is unique in what is needed to present the case to the court. This is explained up front to each and every client. At the time our firm is hired, a legal services agreement is signed by the client whereby they acknowledge and agree to pay for the services utilized. This agreement sets out our expectations for our clients, including but not limited to the amount of the initial retainer, any replenishment amount required and how payment is expected once the retainer is gone. We are not a bank - we are lawyers. We are not in the business of loaning money to our clients. We have a job to do and we expect to be compensated for the job that we do. As a client, you agreed to this model. It is not fair to this firm or the people that work here to work on a case that they will not be compensated for. If you think about it, this is not an uncommon business model. Your credit card will cut you off if you don’t pay. Your utilities stop working if you don’t pay. If you fail to pay your mortgage the bank does not sit back and continue to loan you money, they begin foreclosure proceedings. We are realistic when we explain the costs of litigation. If we determine from the outset that a client will be unable to afford our services we do the best we can to send them somewhere that they can better afford. At the end of the day, a client hires us because we are good at what we do not because we are the least expensive. With respect to the review in question I am not certain who you are or what the particulars of your case were as that information is not provided to me. With that said, I would certainly be willing to sit down with you and discuss with you your experiences with our firm. As a business owner I am always receptive to learn from our client’s past experiences in hopes that we can build upon our foundation. Perhaps there is a way I can better explain the costs of the process to our future clients so that there is no misunderstanding as to the expectations and the ultimately, the cost.