Current News:

January 20, 2011

How to Save Money on your Bill

I hate when my clients have sticker shock from their bills. Here are some tips for how to save money.

1. Use email, rather than call. Not only will you get a quicker response from me (I’ve been known to respond to emails in the middle of the night), but it takes me less time to respond to an email than to return a call. Plus, if I return a call and you aren’t available, I’ve just charged you $30 to leave a message for you to call me back. With an email, at least my response will likely address the issue you contacted me about. Emails also memorialize for both of us what I said, so you don’t wind up getting charged for me to answer the same question twice.

2. Ask lots of questions in one email. I usually charge my minimum 1/10th of an hour to respond to an email, even if it’s long. But I can’t generally charge less than 1/10th of an hour. I try to avoid charging several tenths of an hour in a single day, but even so, you are going to get charged less for one longer email than for several short ones.

3. See if my assistant can answer the question. He can’t give legal advice, but he can almost always answer anything else, like when I’m going to be in, questions about your bill, when the next court date is, have we received a response from the other side or not, did something get mailed out, etc. He bills at 1/3 of my hourly rate. You save $20 every six minutes that you can get your answer from my assistant rather than from me.

4. Ask me what evidence and documents I need, and get them for me. For instance, it takes forever for me to get doctor’s reports and school records. If there’s already an open court file, go make a copy of the whole file and bring it to me. Those two steps alone would save the average client several hundred dollars.

5. Get an iPhone, iPad or blackberry. Seriously. If I can communicate with you quickly, and while you are out and about, it saves you enough money over time to pay for the service and the phone. You know you wanted one anyway.

6. If we ask you to do something, do it as soon as possible. The longer your file is open, the more bad things can happen and the more things cost. The cases we’ve won for our clients most cheaply all involved a client who got me everything almost immediately, so I could get the court date and get the file closed quickly.

January 7, 2011

For our business clients, please be aware of some recent changes in the tax laws:

1. You must file your 941 payments online. Go to EFTPS.COM to sign up. If you don’t, you pay a penalty to the IRS.

2. Withdraw only 4.2% for your employee’s social security taxes, but remember to withdraw the same 6.2% of the employer’s share. Medicare and Federal With-holding laws remain the same.

 

November 2, 2010

Donations for legal fees of Carol Ann and Laura Stutte

Metro Pulse Article

Care2.com article

WATE.com article

The Daily Times article

October 29, 2010

Farewell to Vivian Wright

Associate attorney Vivian Wright has left Held Law Firm. Vivian was a great presence around the office and her smile, positive attitude and kind words will be missed. We wish her nothing but success in her endeavors. If you are a client of Vivian's, she can be reached at (865) 546-0011 or email her at wright.vivian@gmail.com

January 18, 2010

A bittersweet farewell to Bob

For our clients who are asking, we should tell you that we have wished a fond farewell to my all-time favorite employee and dear friend, Bob Becker. Bob has left the law firm so that he can devote more time to his first love- his family, and to his second love- job as Vice Mayor. Our loss, which is being felt deeply, is Knoxville's gain!

December 6th, 2009

For Divorcing people- an important reminder

If your final hearing on your divorce is coming up soon, and you aren't our client, be sure to ask your lawyer whether he's filed the COBRA notice. As of January 1st, all divorcing parties must file a notice with the court that tells your EX that his/her insurance is going to get terminated, and that s/he may have options for continuing health insurance through COBRA. The notice has to tell your EX things like who to call and the phone number and address. Judges are not supposed to sign the Final Decree of Divorce without this Notice being filed with the Court. Don't forget to do this- you don't want your divorce getting set aside because you didn't.