How We Prefer to Work
Thank you for allowing us to help with your probate matter.
We have been handling probate matters for some time. We have spent a lot of time learning the rules, how to move cases forward, etc.
But for many our clients, this is often the first time they have had to deal with the probate process. For some clients, it is even the first time they have had to hire an attorney or work with the courts.
Whether this is your first probate or legal matter or if you have done this before and are a professional, it helps to think about how we can best work together.
Here are a few things that you may not have asked, were wondering about, or were too shy to ask:
Communications
Everybody has their preferred way to communicate–be it email, phone, online conferences, or in person.
Here are our preferences:
- We prefer email. We live in our email system. This is our preferred method of communication. We try to answer every email by the following business day.
- Scheduled calls and online conferences work too. If you send an email and do not get a response by the next business day (or if it is urgent), we ask that you use our calendar system to put a phone call or online conference meeting directly on our calendar. We have time slots available just about every weekday. Here is a link to the calendar system: click here (you can also find this link at the bottom of our email communications).
- Unscheduled calls, well, okay. If you prefer unscheduled calls, that is fine. We’ll work with that.
- Unscheduled office visits, only sparingly. We do not prefer unscheduled office visits. But if this is your preference, we’ll respect it and work with it.
Sending us Documents
There are several ways to get documents to us–be it electronically, by fax, by mail, or in-person drop off.
Here are our preferences:
- Electronic delivery is preferred. If you have the ability to scan and email documents, we’d ask that you send your documents to us that way. If you have too many to email but have them saved on your computer, we can send you a Dropbox link to drag-and-drop the files to us.
- Fax works fine, but not for court documents. If you want to fax documents to us, that’s fine. Our fax number is (866) 633-3083. Please note that court documents have to be clear copies. Faxes won’t work for those.
- Mail and in-person drop off. This is the preferred method for voluminous documents. Please mail them to our 6671 Southwest Fwy, Ste 820, Houston, TX 77074 office. If there is some chance that the postal system will lose your documents and they are irreplaceable, please pause to consider whether putting them in the mail to us is warranted. In-person drop off may be a better option. If you want to drop them off in-person, please call to let us know when you plan on dropping them off.
Who to Communicate With
We are a teaching law firm, meaning, we always have associate attorneys working on cases. This is our obligation to the legal profession.
We also use paralegals to keep our client’s legal costs down.
So you may have two attorneys and a paralegal working on your case. So who do you communicate with?
Here are our preferences:
- Talk to the paralegal. If you have a basic procedural question, such as how to fill out an intake form, question about your invoice, what the date of your hearing is, or how to find the courthouse.
- Talk to the attorney. If you are asking for legal advice, case strategy, how to deal with a family situation, etc., please ask for the attorney.
We have also been working on a Texas Probate Guide. It is always a work in process. But you might be able to find your answer in the guide. Here is a link: click here. You might also check our FAQs page.
Concerns
Probate is a process. I can already tell you that you are going to be wondering why the process is so slow.
Probates in Texas are not fast. Even getting the court’s to schedule hearings can take time. The intestate cases are even slower (those without a will), as the court will take time to assign an attorney ad litem and the ad litems are often painfully slow to work probate cases.
Hang in there. We’ll work through it. But if you are really concerned and feel that the case isn’t moving, please let us know about the concern. Don’t be shy.
If you have any questions, please do let us know. If you see something going on with your case that you don’t understand, please let us know about it.
Invoices & Billing
We bill monthly, typically on or about the first day of the month. Our system is set up to send automatic reminders for unpaid invoices. These are send out by email every few weeks. Please Don’t ignore the reminders. We do close cases if the invoices are not paid timely and we do not hear from you about it.
If you are having difficulty paying an invoice, please let us know about it. We can often work out a plan to minimize the costs going forward. This may include you doing more of the work, and us serving more as an adviser. It may include the paralegal handling more aspects of the case. There are other possibilities too. But each one starts with you, the client, contacting us to talk about it.