Before you send anything

Civil rights claims against institutions: police and sheriff misconduct, discrimination in housing, lending and public services, disability rights in schools and public places, and conditions and medical care in jails and prisons. We send other matters to lawyers who do them.

We talk about fees and costs before we agree to work together, and the agreement is in writing. If we handle your case for a share of any recovery, you pay no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery. Costs such as filing fees and expert reports are separate, and the agreement says who pays them if there is no recovery.

It depends on the claim and on who it is against. Claims against a city, a county or a school board can have notice deadlines of a few months. Do not wait to be sure; write to us and we will tell you which date matters.

The date, the place and the names, as you remember them. Then any letter, report number, photograph, video, medical record or grievance form. A few pages in your own words, in order, is more useful than a long list of complaints.

It can change the order in which things happen. We do not handle criminal defense, but we will coordinate with your defense lawyer so that nothing you do in one case harms the other.

Not yet. Until we agree to represent you, writing or calling does not create an attorney-client relationship, so please keep your first message to the basics and leave out anything private. Once we speak and agree to work together, our conversations are protected.

A lawyer reads your message and calls you to ask a few questions. Then we tell you plainly whether we can help, whether another lawyer would be better, or whether the law does not reach what happened.