Louisiana Divorce Lawyers who will give you free information before you decide to Divorce, and who will Guarantee Your Legal Fee if you hire them.
My name is Ricky Gallagher, and I am the owner of the Gallagher Law Firm. Two types of people generally come to my site. First, there are people who are thinking about a divorce and just want information. Second, there are people who know they want a divorce and need to hire a lawyer.
Do You Want Free Information on Louisiana Divorces Before You Talk to a Lawyer?
For those of you who are thinking about a divorce and just want information, I have created an email course called Divorce Done Right. What is Divorce Done Right? Here is a video explaining everything.
If you are thinking about divorce, you really have two choices: fix your marriage or end your marriage. Divorces are stressful and expensive. Divorces are psychologically one of the most difficult events in a person’s life. Divorces are difficult for children to understand. I personally believe that you need to put some serious work into saving your marriage. That’s why my email course will provide you with a list of marriage counselors who can help you try to save your marriage. These counselors are professionals who will help you work on your marriage, and who will also help you rationally decide that your marriage cannot be saved. My email course will also list some books you may find helpful if you are trying to save your marriage.
Reading Divorce Done Right will also teach you the divorce process so that you can make an informed decision about your marriage.
Once you decide that you need to end your marriage, the worries really start. I understand what your concerns are:
- How can I afford to divorce my spouse, who earns most of the money I need to live?
- How will divorce affect my business?
- How will divorce affect my house?
- How will divorce affect my “things?”
- How can I protect my assets?
- How can I protect my credit rating?
- How can I keep my spouse from revealing “dirty laundry”?
- How can I hire the right attorney?
- How much will all of this cost?
These questions will keep you up at night, haunting your sleep. I have seen it happen. Divorce Done Right will answer these questions for you. Knowing the answers will give you peace of mind. Use the form above to send us an email requesting a download of Divorce Done Right. Or, you can call my office and ask to be put on the list. Just dial (866) 376-7930.
Do You Want to Know Exactly How Much You Legal Fees Will Be Before You Hire a Lawyer?
We have learned that when people need a divorce or family law attorney, they need a legal professional who will be accessible, honest, passionate about representing them, and will be fair about billing for services. I have earned a reputation throughout the New Orleans area as an attorney you can trust when you need results.
The Gallagher Law Firm will represent our divorce clients on a Guaranteed Fee basis. This means that you will know exactly what your legal fee will be before the case starts. That’s right no - hourly - rates to worry about. No monthly bills that vary from month to month. No paying $35.00 (or more!) for a short phone call. As far as I know, no other lawyer in the Louisiana will charge you a flat fee for a contested divorce.
Many other lawyers charge $175 an hour, $250 an hour, even $350 an hour! A simple 5 minute phone call with a $350 an hour attorney will cost you $35. A 4 hour hearing with a $250 and hour lawyer will cost you $1,000. Figure in meeting time, drafting of documents, lawyers to lawyer calls, and negotiation, and your legal bills can really shoot up. I know that clients HIT THE ROOF when they call their attorney for an update and they get a bill for the call. And I don’t blame them - this would tick me off too! A Guaranteed Fee avoids this aggravation.
A Guaranteed Fee also puts the client and the lawyer on the same page. If a lawyer charges an hourly fee, what incentive is there for the lawyer to be efficient? NONE. The more time the lawyer takes, the more money the lawyer makes. I am not saying that all lawyers work slowly to increase their fees - most good lawyers have too much work. But most lawyers do not spend time thinking about how they can work more efficiently. I do. That is why I feel comfortable offering you a Guaranteed Fee. If I am slow, if it takes me a long time to do things, if I do not harness technology, I will be out of business! As I like to say, “I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid!” I have spent my career thinking about how I could make my practice and my workflow more efficient. I even think about efficiency in my personal life. (My wife Jodie would say I spend too much time thinking about efficiency - I drive her crazy!) By saving time, I am able to pass the savings on to you.
How do we do it? We have spent hours studying the litigation and divorce process. We have identified the repetitive functions in the process. We harness the power of computers to streamline the repetitive parts of the process. This is only part of what we have done, but I don’t want to give away too many of our secrets.
How much is the Guaranteed Fee? Unfortunately, each case is different. Some cases are complex and some simple. I can tell you that for a simple, uncontested divorce, our flat fee is $2,000. But everyone thinks their divorce will be uncontested, and often they are wrong. Uncontested means you and your spouse agree on everything. If you cannot agree, then the cases is contested. So don’t be fooled by attorneys who charge a low flat fee for an uncontested divorce - some will charge you the low flat fee, take your money, and then you will find out that your divorce is contested after all. Bottom line is I really cannot tell you what your Guaranteed Fee will be unless one of our lawyers meets with you and asks you questions about your case.
I can tell you that your Guaranteed Fee is probably less than you would pay a real estate agent to sell your house, and a lot more is at risk in your divorce than in selling your house. Of course, if you have kids, if you or your spouse has a retirement account, if you own a business, your divorce will be much more complicated. This means the flat fee will be higher. But whatever amount we set for your flat fee, this is all you will pay to us ever. We will not ask for any more fees even if it takes much longer than we thought. You will have to pay court costs (these are very unpredictable and the Bar Association does not let us charge a Guaranteed amount for these). You may have to pay experts, depending on whether your divorce requires this (I can’t force the expert to charge a flat fee). But that’s it. One fee to the Gallagher Law Firm.
You may be concerned with how you will be able to pay our Guaranteed Fee. I don’t blame you. With all of your other financial concerns, legal fees just add to the worry. To make things easier on you, we even accept Visa and Master Card. Plus, you don’t have to pay the entire Guaranteed Fee up front. We will allow you to spread your payment over time.
You may ask yourself “Do I have to pay the flat fee?” Well, no. We can bill for every phone call, meeting, trip to court, document. Just let us know when we meet, and we will set you up to be billed on an hourly basis.
If you don’t think you can afford the Gallagher Law Firm, order Divorce Done Right anyway. Inside, you will find the number for the New Orleans Bar Association Referral Service. This organization has a special program for individuals who need a divorce lawyer but cannot afford to pay for them. If you qualify, the attorneys will work for you at a reduced rate. Who knows, you may end up hiring us anyway - we accept a limited number of cases like this every year as a way of giving back to the community.
The Gallagher Law Firm strives to make the legal process as easy as possible.
At the Gallagher Law Firm, we have worked hard to make the legal process as pain free as possible. Before you even meet with us, we’ll send you a checklist of documents we might need. This way, you can get those documents together and bring them with you to our first meeting. When you arrive at our offices (we are in Metairie near Lakeside Shopping Center), you will be shown into our conference room or my private corner office. Jodie will offer you coffee, tea or a soft drink, and if you are lucky, we might even have homemade cookies! While you are eating your cookies and sipping your soft drink, we will ask you to fill out a very comprehensive form. This form is important for me to use in helping you plan the strategy for your divorce.
Once we meet, we will file a Petition for Divorce. This is a document which asks the Court to end your marriage. We will also file discovery, which are questions to your spouse asking for documents and information. If you have kids, we will begin the process of analyzing who will pay child support and what those payments will be. If you own property, we will spend time with you developing a plan for dividing the property.
The Gallagher Law Firm will get your divorce finalized as efficiently (that means at the least cost) and quickly as possible so that you can move on with your life. That’s what you really want – to move on. In the heat of passion, you may think that you want to punish your spouse. The problem is punishment is expensive, and it really won’t make you feel good. Punishment will make me rich, but I don’t want to get rich that way. The Courts are reluctant to issue any real punishment to husbands and wives anyway, no matter the reason for the divorce (the exception, of course, is child or spousal abuse; this type of spouse needs to go to jail, but that’s really beyond the scope of Divorce Done Right. If you have an abusive spouse, call the police immediately then call us at (866) 376-7930.) The Courts really have two concerns: take care of your children’s best interests, and divide the money. Period.
Finally, as one of our clients, we will give you one free consultation per month on a legal issue OTHER THAN YOUR DIVORCE. Call as often as you like about your divorce case. You paid for the right to call us. But if you have another legal issue come up, a problem with a lease, problems at work, whatever, let us know, and we will schedule a call to try to answer your question. Just a few rules. We need you to fax your problem, the legal question and any documents related to the question. For example, if your landlord is giving you trouble, send us a fax letting us know what is going on, what your question is, and attach your lease. Mary will then set up a short phone conference with either Elizabeth or me for us to try to answer your question. Please remember, I know quite a bit about the law, but I don’t claim to know everything, and there are areas I know little about. If I can’t answer your question, I know attorneys who can and I can put you in touch with them.
Call Now to set up a Divorce Strategy Session.
So if this sounds fair, you need to call us. Set up a Divorce Strategy Session by calling our Client Services Coordinator, Jodie, at (866) 376-7930.
So who is going to represent you? In most cases, Elizabeth Robins is the lead counsel on divorce cases. I promise you, Elizabeth is one tough cookie (just ask her kids!). Elizabeth is a Colonel in the Air Force Reserves. For those who don’t know, the next rank would be Brigadier General and a transfer to Washington, D.C.! But with two kids in high school and one in grammar school, that’s unlikely to happen. The best thing is that Elizabeth loves domestic cases. If there is a problem with efficiency in our Firm, it’s with Elizabeth because she thinks about her cases all the time! (I guess it’s a good thing we do a flat fee, right!) She gets mad when her clients have been wronged. Injustice infuriates her! You definitely want her on your team. (if you want to see Elizabeth’s credentials [they really are impressive], click here).
My bread and butter are personal injury cases, especially medical malpractice and maritime cases. But while Elizabeth is the guru in domestic law, I love to try cases! You see, I majored in accounting at Loyola. I went to Tulane Law School planning to become a tax attorney. Our first semester, we had to give a pretend argument. I loved it. I can still remember the day. I left the argument and realized that I wanted to go to trial for a living. From that moment on (this happened in the spring of 1991) I did everything I could to make myself a better trial lawyer. At Tulane, I entered every trial competition they offered. I did pretty well, too. After law school, I coached the Tulane Trial Team that was ranked 3rd out of approximately 200 teams nationally. Then Jodie and I started having kids, so no more coaching. But I did start trying cases. I intentionally started my career at small firms where I felt I would have more of a chance to try cases. My strategy paid off, and I have tried more non-criminal cases than many attorneys. And I have had quite a bit of success (if you want to see a list of my successful cases, click here). I am also asked to speak a few times a year on how to try cases. The flip side is that once you win a few big cases, people are more likely to settle fairly, because they know you are willing to go to trial and capable once you get there. So now I try fewer cases, but I get better results for my clients.
I hope that you found this information helpful. Again, call Jodie to set up a Divorce Strategy Session at (866) 376-7930.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to meeting you.
Richard T. Gallagher, Jr.
Founder of the Gallagher Law Firm, LLC
Gallagher Law Firm, L.L.C.,
3045 Ridgelake Drive, Suite 200
Metairie, Louisiana 70002
Phone: (866) 376-7930
Fax: (504) 754-7542
E-mail: rtg@gallagherlawfirm.com