About Us

Our firm charges a service-based fee for legal representation per type of case (see chart below) except for personal injury cases which are on a contingency basis* (see description here: http://www.fitzgeraldlawcompany.com/fees.html). The service-based fee is based on the work and activities that the typical case of a particular type will generally require.

In certain specific situations, clients may require additional services (i.e. court appearances, revisiting a past criminal record/tax problem, addressing complications due to inefficiencies/delays or mistakes of third parties or incomplete documentation, additional applications, continuance requests, etc.), which are not included in our service-based fees as listed in the above chart. The cost for additional services is listed in our Schedule of Additional Services below. To receive a full description of the activities included in our service-based fee for a particular case, please call or email us at: nmorales@fitzgeraldlawcompany.com and we will be happy to provide you with this information.

Whenever possible we try to foresee potential issues on a case and for this reason, it is extremely important to be completely open and detailed with the information you provide our office at your initial consultation, since any information that we learn later in the case can affect not only the cost of your case but also the strategy to be implemented. However, sometimes clients are not completely aware of their immigration situation or of how past issues (i.e. a criminal/tax problem) may affect their case, and therefore may not provide us all the relevant information at the outset, for us to take it into consideration when providing an estimate of all the work involved in the case. In these situations, the intricacies of a case may start to reveal themselves as the case progresses and we will communicate to the client if there is a need for additional work and fees (see schedule of additional service fees). Please bear in mind that any additional fees required are due before we perform the additional work.

We believe that this service-based fee structure simplifies communication about pricing, allowing our clients to better estimate the cost of our representation on their case, as well as to understand in advance, what activities constitute additional work and require additional fees.

If in the middle of a case you decide to change the type of petition you wish to file, the legal fees for the new type of petition will apply (we will have to do all the new work) and credit will be given for any unearned fees on your original case. An itemized bill will be prepared at our regular hourly rate as stated in your contract, and this will be subtracted from the fee you paid.

Please bear in mind that the application charges of the US Immigration Service (USCIS) and any other type of expense that our office incurs in your case, such as express mail, investigation expenses, job advertisements for employment-based immigration cases, parking, etc. are your responsibility and additional to our legal fees.

For The US Immigration Service filing fees see: http://www.uscis.gov/forms

All invoices are due upon receipt, and we reserve the right to withdraw our representation if our invoices are not paid on time. At the point of hire we request that you sign a contract and pay the service-based legal fee before we start working on your case. (payment plans may be available upon request and a signed mutual agreement.  We accept all major Credit Cards).

*Note: Personal injury cases are on a contingent basis. This means that, with the client's agreement, the client does not pay upon hiring the firm, but when the firm settles.

Rush Services Surcharge:

Work or petitions that need to be filed in less than 5 days from the day our firm is hired (the date contract is signed and fees are paid) may require a surcharge of $1,000 due to the last minute additional work overload placed on our team.