Frequently asked questions

Yes. The first consultation is free and runs about thirty minutes — long enough for us to understand the matter and tell you honestly whether you need a lawyer, what it is likely to involve and what it should cost. Call 000-000-000 or use the contact form.

Our office is in Woodside and most of our clients are from Queens — Woodside, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Astoria, Maspeth, Long Island City, Corona, Rego Park and Forest Hills. We also appear throughout New York City, Nassau County and the federal courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.

It depends on the work. Residential closings, entity formations, wills and uncontested divorces are quoted as flat fees. Litigation and ongoing business counsel are billed hourly against a retainer. Personal injury is handled on contingency, with no fee unless there is a recovery. Whichever applies, you get the fee arrangement in writing before we start.

Between our attorneys and staff we handle matters in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Hindi, Tamil, Igbo and Polish. Woodside is one of the most linguistically diverse neighborhoods in the United States and the firm was built to reflect that.

Yes. We keep Saturday morning appointments and can arrange evening consultations by telephone or video where a weekday visit is not workable. Say so when you call and we will find a time.

Sometimes the answer is no, and we will tell you. A firm that takes every matter that walks in is not doing its clients a service. If the sensible answer is a form filed yourself, a call to an agency or simply waiting, that is the advice you will get.

In practice, yes. New York is an attorney-state: the purchase contract is drafted and negotiated by lawyers rather than agents, and the closing is conducted by lawyers. Buying without one means signing a contract nobody on your side has read.

One quoted price covering contract review and negotiation, the title and survey review, coordination with your lender and the board, and attendance at closing. Third-party costs — title insurance, recording fees, transfer taxes — are separate and paid to those parties, not to us.

Six to twelve weeks is typical, and the board package is usually what decides where in that range you land. We prepare it early and chase it, because a package that sits half-finished is the most common reason a closing slips a month.

In New York State court it is generally 20 days to answer if you were served personally within the state, and 30 days in most other situations; federal court is generally 21 days. Missing it produces a default judgment. Call the day you are served, not the week the answer is due.

Often, yes — but it takes a motion, a reasonable excuse for the default and a meritorious defense, and it gets harder the longer you wait. If a judgment has restrained your account, treat it as urgent.

It depends almost entirely on how hard the other side fights. We give a staged estimate — through the answer, through discovery, through trial — and revisit it at each stage so you are choosing to continue rather than discovering the bill.

The estate passes under New York's intestacy statute, which distributes by fixed shares to a spouse, children and other relatives in a set order — not necessarily as you would have chosen. Someone must still petition Surrogate's Court to be appointed administrator, which is generally slower and more expensive than probating a will.

An uncontested estate with cooperative heirs typically runs seven to fifteen months from filing to distribution. Difficulty locating heirs, a contested will, or real property that must be sold will extend it.

For many Queens families a well-drafted will, correct beneficiary designations and correctly titled property are sufficient. A trust earns its cost where there is out-of-state real property, a beneficiary receiving public benefits, blended-family complexity, or a wish to avoid probate entirely. We will tell you if you do not need one.

Nothing up front. Injury cases are handled on contingency: our fee is a percentage of the recovery, set by New York court rule, and there is no fee if there is no recovery. Case expenses are advanced by the firm and repaid out of the recovery.

Generally three years from the date of the accident, but there are important exceptions — claims against a city or public authority typically require a notice of claim within 90 days, and wrongful death has its own two-year period. Because the short deadlines are the ones people miss, call early.

Not before you have spoken to a lawyer. A recorded statement taken in the days after a collision, while you are still in pain and unsure of the full extent of your injuries, is used later to argue that the injuries are minor. You are not obligated to give one.

You should say that you want a lawyer, and then stop talking. That is not an admission of anything and it cannot be used against you. Explaining yourself without counsel present, however, very often can be — including statements you believe are helping you.

You are formally charged, counsel enters, bail or release conditions are set, and an adjourn date is given. It is the single most consequential appearance in most cases because release conditions are set there — which is why having counsel at the arraignment, not after it, matters so much.

A refusal to submit to a chemical test triggers a separate DMV proceeding with its own hearing and its own revocation consequences, independent of the criminal case. Both need to be handled, and the DMV hearing often comes first. A conditional license may be available through the Impaired Driver Program.

Usually not. New York's homestead exemption protects a substantial amount of equity in a primary residence, and Chapter 13 exists specifically to let a homeowner cure mortgage arrears over time while keeping the house. Whether your equity is fully protected is one of the first things we calculate.

Yes, and immediately. Filing triggers the automatic stay, which halts garnishments, bank restraints, collection calls and most lawsuits the moment the petition is filed. Child support obligations are the notable exception.

A Chapter 7 remains for ten years and a Chapter 13 for seven, from the filing date. In practice many people see their scores begin recovering within a year or two of discharge, because the discharged balances stop reporting as delinquent.