Dear Jason: I just wanted to write to say how happy I am with your legal services. You won my case! When I first walked into your office, I confess I was a little worried about the price. But you get what you pay for, right? Winning my case was well worth the small difference in price. Thank God my parents footed the bill from New York. I’m telling all my friends about you. You helped me through a tough time. Thanks again! — Nikki Friedhoffer
The fee depends on how much time we must spend to represent you well. We charge a large enough flat-fixed fee for a full-blown defense of your case. A winning DUI defense is a thorough defense. This takes some time. We provide you a highly specialized service that few lawyers do, and even fewer do well.
If an attorney promises a cheap defense, then you should worry. You get what you pay for.
Never plead guilty
Most people just plea bargain. We don’t. We’ll never scare you into pleading guilty. We’ll never pressure you. There are lawyers who’ll take you down there for $1500 to plead you guilty. If you want to plead guilty, you don’t even need to hire a lawyer. We’re here for those people who say, “I want to defend this case because I’m innocent.”
What We Will Do For You
We’ll represent you through a trial by judge or jury for your DUI. We will represent you through the defense of your administrative license suspension hearing or in any judicial appeals of license suspension issues arising out of or relating to the criminal charge of DUI. Your representation on the pending charges will include Jason Cerbone’s time investigating the case, to gather facts; research Georgia’s applicable statutes and case law; obtain reports; interview witnesses, appearing in court for your preliminary hearing, appearing on your behalf and entering a “not guilty” plea at arraignment, his preparation and filing of pre-trial motions, issuance of subpoenas (if required), conducting any pre-trial hearings required by the case, negotiations or pre-trial meetings with the prosecutor, contact of expert witnesses, fact witnesses, and possible character witnesses, confer with expert counsel to discuss strategy; prepare and; research the court file; verify all court dates; obtain any continuances if necessary; prepare cross-examination outlines for all potential witnesses; prepare direct-examination outlines for all potential witnesses; do legal research of relevant evidentiary law and objections; communicate with the opposing side; request for court reporter to be present; and (if required) trial of the case before a judge or jury.
We will send you a “What-to-expect” letter telling you what the proceeding is going to be like. I notify you on court dates, check your prior criminal history, check your motor vehicle records, interview witnesses, visit the scene, do exhaustive discovery, negotiation, and trial.
Jason Cerbone agrees to try to win. Jason Cerbone agrees to use his best effort to represent you to the best of his ability in all phases of representation. Jason Cerbone will use his best professional effort to get a resolution satisfactory to you. You understand and agree that Jason Cerbone makes no warranty regarding his work, the chances of success, nor the likely results which will be obtained except that he will perform all services for you in a professional manner, and in full compliance and accordance with the canons of Professional Responsibility and Ethics established by the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Supreme Court.
How much is it worth to you?
- High-level specialized experience and skill
- Avoiding exposure to risk or possible ruin
- Exclusivity or unavailability to others
- Our ability to communicate to help you understand what is going on, and the game-plan
- Timely performance and prompt service
We’ll discuss the fee during the initial interview after we’ve gotten all the facts and have a better idea of what is involved in your case. Like going to an expensive restaurant most items are alacarte. So are our lawyer services. If an evidentiary motion needs to be researched and filed, and argued, then there is an additional charge. Your fee depends on several things: complexity of your case, time, the case is so time consuming that other cases will be turned down, severity of charges, whether or not mandatory jail time is called for, how extensive the investigation will be, whether experts will need to be used (and what that entails), how complicated the legal issues are, hearings expected, is trial inevitable?
Cash up front
We require cash up front. Neither you nor I want you to start the case, then have to abandon it or postpone it in the middle because you can’t pay your bill. It’s better for both of us for you to pay the legal fees in advance so you won’t have to worry about it if you run out of money one year from now during the case. We get the entire fee before we do any work. Our fees are fair and set.
Costs
We require you to pay for estimated costs in advance to place in our trust account for later disbursement to be used as needed and replenished as used. If we take on your case, we really believe in your case and we’ll invest our time and energy handling it. On the other hand, we are not your banker. We expect you to pay for all out-of-pocket costs such as: police reports, court reporter, minimum appearance fees, transcript costs, medical examinations, medical opinions, medical reports, medical testimony, investigations, photocopy costs, record copy costs (employer and hospital) expert opinion and testimony costs in addition to non-medical, including all experts and travel expenses. We’ll ask you for a check to place in our trust account. We’ll put your money in the account and if we need more, we’ll ask for it. And, if we don’t use all of it, we’ll give it back to you for a refund.
