Initial Consultation $50 or $175

Case Locations We Serve      Helping Men

LAWYER RATES $295/HOUR EXCEPT MARILYN AT $370/HOUR*

OUR INITIAL RETAINERS ARE SOMETIMES AS LOW AS $2,500**

An initial consultation at the Law Office of Marilyn D. York is relatively inexpensive, will remove many of your fears of the unknown, and should make it easy for you to decide your next steps. The consultation lasts about an hour, is arranged by appointment and is conducted in person. Afterward, you may call the lawyer once, free, within a week to get more questions answered.

Although the first appointment costs $175 up front, $50 of your $175 is transferred directly to a local charity. If you hire us the same day, or if you hire us later and have a High Asset Case you will get the other $125 credited to your account.

Your initial consultation provides you, the client, with a great opportunity to evaluate the lawyer and lay the foundation for continued legal work, while getting questions answered and legal advice at a special reduced rate. Your family law problems are, no doubt, troublesome and stressful. They are a negative in your life. However, the charitable donation that will spring from your consultation fee, at no cost to you, creates something immediately positive in your community. What’s more, the legal advice and answers you get during the initial consultation should make you feel much better. By hiring us at the Law Office of Marilyn D. York, we'll continue to make your journey as successful and gentle as possibly.

We are proud to say that over half of the people who take advantage of our initial consultations hire us to work on their cases. Before this appointment we must have your completed Client Representation Application with permission to run your Credit Report if you hire us. Kindly complete this application and email, fax or mail it to us so we get it at least two days before your initial consultation. Our lawyers love to be prepared by doing some research and preparation before talking to you. Please know that if you wait to complete this form during your appointment — which will give the lawyer only a few minutes to review and consider the pertinent information — you will waste much of your scheduled time (perhaps half of what has been allotted to you on our schedule). We may even have to reschedule you for a later day. Your credit report will help us determine 1) if anyone is damaging your credit or spending your assets which can affect your decisions; and 2) if you need a guarantor when hiring us. The credit report will also help us expedite your case development regarding the splitting of marital assets and debt.

*Hourly rates are not a good criterion for selecting an attorney. However, our hourly rates are more than competitive in the area, and especially when comparing to other Certified Family Law Specialists and their associates who practice family law exclusively. We are convinced that our experience, efficiency and dedication allow us to consistently charge our clients less for their case than the opposing attorney charges our clients’ exes for the same amount of work.

**Our initial retainers range from $2,500 to $5,000 or higher for out-of-area clients, or ones with very complicated cases, or ones with a Bad Credit report.  Examples of complicated cases are ones involving a lot of assets, custody fights over children, or temporary protection orders. The full retainer fee is due at the time we are hired. When a client’s account credit balance reaches $500, an additional retainer is required if the case is still active. Because terms are always pay-in-advance, credit balances are not carried for clients. Associate attorney rates typically are $295 per hour; as a Certified Family Law Specialist, Marilyn's rates are typically $370 per hour. Before a client has hired us, legal questions are not answered nor legal advice given over the phone — except during a consultation appointment and the one free follow-up phone call.

Please know that it sometimes costs our clients $20,000 or more for complicated cases having a lot of assets. It sometimes costs our clients $2,500 or less for an Uncontested Divorce.