DOC ASSIST

From The Desk of Dean McAdams -

An experienced paralegal like me can legally do everything an attorney does except represent you in court, provide legal advice and set fees for legal services. I can only advertise myself as a paralegal to lawyers and legal document assistant to the general public. A lot of people who come to me for help are already imbroiled in a lawsuit and cannot afford an attorney to represent them in their civil litigation matters. This is where a paralegal service can be a great help, if not a life saver.

There are over 2000 court forms and an infinite variety of specially prepared legal forms to solve every legal problem:

With my twenty years of experience as a civil and criminal paralegal there is no legal problem that I cannot solve by helping you fill out court forms and legal pleadings. After correctly filling out your forms I will get them filed at court and served on the appropriate parties. Court forms are actually much more difficult to fill out than they first appear and the court clerks will reject completed forms if there is one little thing wrong with them. For example with probate forms you have to decide if you need to file for letters of administration or special letters of administration, and the new probate filing fees are astronomical. If you make a mistake you have to pay another $350 to file new and/or amended letters. It took me years of on-the-job experience actually working with court forms and legal documents to get the details right. However the main reason my clients choose me is because I am a hardcore legal warrior who will fight for their cause. Plus I now have the ability to fax file and the court clerk will put the fees on my credit card account. And you can forget about loan modification, I prefer loan elimination!

Rates:

My hourly rate is $100/per hour and I try to quote flat fees as much as possible. Simple one page court forms are also $50/per page and it goes up from there.

I generally do not like to use standard court forms for complaints and answers. Specially drafted summons and complaints are $400 for the complete package which includes the appropriate civil case cover sheet and whatever local rules require for each jurisdiction. Answers to complaints are $300 each.

Conducting discovery is the core of all litigation and what I excel at. Form Interrogatories are $100 for the four page limited jurisdiction and $200 for the eight page unlimited. Requests for Admission, Special Interrogatories, Contention Interrogatories and Requests for Production are $50/per page both to propound and respond.

Motions are my forte and are generally $100/per page both to make and oppose, plus my $100/per hour for legal research.

All court filing fees, service of process and any driving time is extra. It took me years of experience to learn the ins and outs of the court system and I have the unique ability to actually get legal advice out of the clerks, but you should never really try to do that yourself as it will probably not work for you. The filing window clerks are the gatekeepers of the whole legal system and dealing with them is an art form.

On November 6, 2008 I attended “Breakfast at the Bar: Winning by Default – How to Get a Judgment the Easy Way” presented by the Hon. Judge Lee S. Edmon of the Los Angeles Superior Court and Liz Turner, Research Attorney in Charge of the Limited Jurisdiction Legal Processing Dept. of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Downtown LA Stanley Mosk Courthouse. As a result, I now have a bullet proof default judgment package for $500.

Clients who retain me for all of their legal matters and to handle each individual legal matter through from beginning to end get special full package rates.

Sincerley,

Dean McAdams