A People's Choice

Thank you Denise for your kind words. Our staff tries very hard to provide exceptional service for every client. We appreciate you taking time out of your day to share your experience with our office.

Truly a great client to work with! Thank you for sharing your appreciation and experience with our office.

We are humbled and flattered by this customer's review. Although every staff member strives to offer excellent service for every customer, it is most definitely satisfying when our staff's efforts achieve this bar. More importantly, it's extremely rewarding for them when those efforts are also acknowledged by the client for whom we work so hard. Thank you so much for sharing your positive experience with our office.

On November 4, 2019, this customer hired us to prepare a QDRO.
The client completed our online interview which requires the client to upload a
complete copy of the divorce Judgment. The client did not upload a copy of the
Judgment but rather provided a wrong document. On November 25th,
2019 our office reached out to the client again reminding him that we needed a
complete copy of the divorce Judgment. During this process, however, our office began
communication with the retirement plan Administrator. On January 27, 2020, still
not having received a copy of the Judgment as requested several times earlier, we
sent a third reminder to the client that we required this document and that he
needed to get this from the court’s record. This document is required by the
Plan Administrator in order to complete the QDRO process. On January 27, the client emailed us that he
did not have a Judgment that would confirm he was entitled to a part of the retirement
account and requested a refund. Our office, having already expended a
substantial amount of time in this case and the cancellation period having
expired months previously, explained to him that no refund would be due. The client
was informed that a copy of the Judgment was required when he completed the
initial interview; however the client uploaded an incorrect document. The
client was reminded three more times of our office needing this document. Our office
is ready to complete the process that we have already started if the client
provides us with the Judgment as requested. There would be no refund due, however,
if the client does not proceed. A copy of our contract is attached.

This client contacted our office to prepare Small Claims documents for him. We did not solicit his business and his inquiry was through our website. we did not provide him with an legal advice regarding his matter. He called the office and asked if we provided help preparing a Small Claims. We told him we did and provided our associated fees. The client requested we send him the contract for services so he could hire us to prepare his documents. We sent the contract to him via email on March 12 2019. The client executed the contract on 3/13 at 7:10 am.. The contract we use is required by the Department of Consumer Affairs. We cannot alter the language. The contract provides for a limited 24 hour cancellation, with an allowance for our office to charge a fee for services specifically disclosed to the client ahead of time. Our contract provides a fee of $150 to open a client's file should they elect to cancel the contract within the limited 24 hour cancellation period. This cancellation clause is required to be acknowledged and accepted before the contract can be submitted and payment is made (See below) The client acknowledged this cancellation clause per the attached. After executing the contract and remitting payment, and past the 24 hour cancellation period, the client client called the office on March 14 and 9:44 am and left a message that he wanted to cancel. Although his cancellation request was past the cancellation period, we did refund $50 and retained the min. $150 for opening his file per the contact cancellation provisions as those service had already been completed. Copy of signed contract is attached.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS OF CONTRACT: I understand that fees paid are non-refundable except as per the limited cancellation policy outlined in Paragraph III of the Contract for Services executed by the Client referenced in this payment portal. Should contract be cancelled during the cancellation period, fees for which A People's Choice is entitled to compensation shall be calculated as follows: A min. fee of $150.00 for opening file plus $150 per hour for staff time expended on telephone, email or appointments prior to receipt of cancellation notice. If documents are substantially completed during the 24-hour period following execution , no refund will be due. Signature of Cardholder: (signature of cardholder )

We do not make up the contract. It is mandatory contact with mandatory language provided by the Department of Consumer Affairs. The Department of Consumer Affairs has set different contract requirements for different professions and there are different cancellation periods with every contract under California laws. We utilize the required contract for the profession of Legal Document Assistants as required under California Law. If the client did not wish to accept the terms of the contract, they should not have executed the contract and acknowledged it's terms. Also, it is the client's responsibility to due their own due diligence regarding what process they wish to hire us for before they sign the contract and remit payment. Our office expended staff time opening the file and communicating with this client after he executed the contract. Our min. fee (per the contract) is $150 for opening any new file. We did not charge the client for any additional phone communications etc and voluntarily refunded him $50 even though he actually cancelled the contract after the expiration of this contractual 24-hour cancellation period. We cannot absorb the cost of staff time during the limited cancellation period of the contract simply because the client chooses to cancel. The fee for opening a file is clearly disclosed in the contract and our our website before any contract is executed and the customer acknowledged this before signing the contract and remitting payment.

The probate process is definitely a team-work effort and the hard work and responsiveness of the client are as equally important to the hard work by our staff. It is always greatly appreciated when a client makes every effort to timely respond to communications and follow instructions, which ALWAYS makes our job just that much easier. It is also very rewarding to get such positive feedback, knowing that every staff in the office has put in countless hours over this 9-month probate process to make sure our clients all achieve a positive outcome of their legal process.

Our fees are clearly defined and cover document preparation only. Our fees do not cover extra items such as postage, court fees, or “extra services” that a client may request outside of the original services and specific documents described in our contract. With this is mind, any extra fees and costs associated with additional requested services are always disclosed to the client ahead of time.

Our fees are clearly defined and cover document preparation only. Our fees do not cover extra items such as postage, court fees, or “extra services” that a client may request outside of the original services and specific documents described in our contract. With this is mind, any extra fees and costs associated with additional requested services are always disclosed to the client ahead of time.

This client hired us to prepare a motion to modify an existing court order. Contract was signed on August 20, 2018. Below is a sequence of events. A contract was signed. (copy attached)

8/20 – Client partially completed online interview. Interview was submitted but was missing information.

8/22 – Client sent blank court filing authorization. Client was notified to complete and resend.

8/23 - 2nd Email was sent to client re incomplete documents re court filing authorization

8/30 – Document preparation started. Documents were unable to be completed because client was missing requested information in her interview. Client was contact by email to provide missing information on interview. Specifically client was requested to provide names of your and dates of birth and copy of current custody order.

8/30 - Client responded by email advising our office “I will try to find the final order, I buried it in storage and have not wanted to pull it out. will provide copy of order etc. asap”

9/16 – Received telephone call from client asking of status. Client was reminded we could not complete documentation without a copy of the current order of which we had previously emailed her and requested two weeks prior.

9/17 – Email to client again reminding her of needed information (copy of previous order)

9/21 – Telephone call from client again asking about status. Again reminded her we needed copy of order. Client demanded refund. We reiterated our 24 hour limited cancellation polity and reminded her that we were ready and willing to complete the ask upon receipt of the requested documentation.

9/27 - Telephone call from client again requesting refund. Again reminded her we needed missing info that we have repeatedly asked for and advised her that her file was simply on "hold" pending receipt of the information requested.

9/27 - Email to client reiterating why documents were not yet complete and indicating if and when she decided to provide us with the requested information we would be more than happy to finish the documents preparation services.

10/3 - Email from client requesting refund. Client still has not provided us with requested information

10/3 - Email to client again reminding her that we have repeatedly asked her to provide a copy of the order, she said she would provide a copy of the order, but has not yet done so. Told her we could complete her paperwork upon receipt of that documentation.

At all times A People's Choice has been ready and willing to finalize the documents already in the process of being prepared but the client has refused to cooperate by providing us with the required documentation (previous court order) to do so. We informed the client that her file was being put "on hold" pending receipt of this requested information. Our staff has already expended a substantial amount of time in this matter and documents are partially prepared. Upon receipt of the Order, we will be able to finalize her paperwork, but no refund is due. We have been unable to complete the services due to client' own neglect to send us the requested documentation.

It's always nice when a client asks us final bill when the case has been completed to be able to tell them our services were paid in full with the flat fee they paid at the inception of the case. It is true that lawyer fees are often exorbitant and don't correlate with the amount of work involved which is why customers appreciate our low, flat fee probate services. However, our job is always made easier when we are working with clients who are involved in their case, read our instructions and follow them as this model client was. It was definitely our pleasure to work with her.

First and foremost, the documents that are prepared by this office and which this client received are completely different than Nolo Press documents. They are custom prepared estate documents that are generated by the SAME SOFTWARE used by attorneys, not something you would get from using Nolo Press books or software. We do acknowledge there were a few typographical errors on our original drafted documents, but changes were immediately made. The client, however, had demands that far exceeded the scope of our services. We explained to the client that our staff was not able to extract separate pdf documents of the 15+ documents in her package, but did suggest she could seek out assistance by a computer technician to help her to that on her end if she felt that was important to do. The client had been provided with the pdf file of her documents so she could do this. With regards to page numbers, the client never mentioned there was a problem with “page numbers” so we are not sure to what she is referring. After receiving this post, we did a review of the documents sent to the client and it appears that pages were proper and numbered correctly. A People’s Choice uses expensive legal software to generate our estate planning documents. We are not perfect, we (and even attorneys) make typographical errors, and we apologized and corrected them. We understand that some clients are more demanding than others. As is policy with very client, we made every attempt to comply with the requests and unique demands of this client, even to the point of making manual changes to her estate documents due to special language she wanted at no additional charge.