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{"id":719,"date":"2014-03-27T15:10:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T20:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/?p=719"},"modified":"2015-11-05T08:48:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T14:48:43","slug":"free-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/free-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Free advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Family is first for me, and I find myself feeling more helpful, more generous, more forgiving, with my family, both those closest to me and those more distant, now more than ever before.<\/h3>\n

\u201cBeing a lawyer\u201d is next. For better or worse, being a lawyer infects one\u2019s entire being; if you don\u2019t love this job, it can kill you. (Indeed, lawyers have frighteningly high suicide rates.) Thankfully, I love my job!<\/p>\n

I became a lawyer to help people.<\/strong> <\/em>Helping regular, ordinary folks has been the lodestar of my career; and this year as never before, I am happily re-dedicated to that goal. \u201cHelping regular folks\u201d means I practice family law, bankruptcy, and other general civil law \u2013 landlord\/tenant issues, writing and reviewing contracts, wills and probate, small business matters, and the like \u2013 often, the kinds of problems we might hope shouldn\u2019t require a lawyer, but do.<\/p>\n

Of course I help most folks most by helping to keep them out of court, helping them resolve their problems by negotiation and agreement, rather than by litigation.<\/p>\n

The best help I can provide, however, is by helping folks plan ahead, helping them avoid the problem in the first place. \u201cIf only you had come to see me earlier,\u201d I often want to say, but I bite my tongue, because I understand. “Lawyers are so damned expensive, I can\u2019t even think about a consultation.”<\/p>\n

Think again, please.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Free initial consultations<\/strong><\/em> are the norm for many matters. When you\u2019re considering divorce or bankruptcy, when you have been sued, or even when you\u2019re just considering hiring a lawyer and want to meet me before making any such important decision, your initial consultation with me is free.<\/p>\n

Many lawyers do free initial consultations, but then if you really want to get into the meat of the matter, they quickly revert to their usual rates, or, worse yet, convince you to hire them when that\u2019s really not the smartest thing to do. That\u2019s where I\u2019m different.<\/p>\n

First, when you really don\u2019t need a lawyer at all, I\u2019ll tell you. If, for example, you\u2019ve got a dead-simple divorce with no children, no retirement, no real property, no arguments about who gets what, and no problem filling out your own forms and appearing before the judge on your own behalf, you can get the forms from the Kansas Judicial Council website<\/a>. You might make some mistakes and have to do some things over; but it\u2019s your own time. (Or, I\u2019ll do it all for you, make sure it\u2019s all right the first time, and represent you at court, for $500.) Or if you\u2019re judgment-proof, so you don\u2019t really need the protection bankruptcy provides, I\u2019ll tell you that, too. (I will never tell anyone to file their own bankruptcy!)<\/p>\n

Second, when I\u2019m not the right lawyer for the job, I\u2019ll tell you that, too. No one lawyer can be the right lawyer for every case and every client! When I don\u2019t think I\u2019m the right lawyer for your case, I want you to know.<\/p>\n

Third, when what you really need is \u201cjust consultation\u201d and there is no need for me to represent you (at court or otherwise), I now offer special, low, \u201cconsultation only\u201d rates. I can truly provide the most help for any client by \u201cearly intervention,\u201d so I want to make it as easy as possible. Moreover, that\u2019s the part of my work I enjoy the most. Depending on the subject, whether it\u2019s one quick chat or likely to be a series of in-depth discussions, and the client\u2019s wishes, I may quote a flat fee or a special, low, \u201cconsultation-only\u201d hourly rate; either way, I want to make it affordable.<\/p>\n

Finally, when things are not quite so simple, and you really do need a lawyer to represent you, I will tell you honestly, as best I can, how much I think it\u2019s really likely to cost and how and where you might be able to cut corners without cutting your own throat.<\/p>\n

I am pleased to serve my clients when they need my services desperately. I am even happier, however, when I can help avoid the desperation. Almost always, the sooner you call the better. \u00a0“Later,” in legal matters, is often frightfully more expensive in the long run. \u00a0If you could use my help, do it now!<\/em> \u00a0Call me<\/em> at 843-0187 or send me an email<\/strong> with the form at right.<\/h4>\n

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Family is first for me, and I find myself feeling more helpful, more generous, more forgiving, with my family, both those closest to me and those more distant, now more than ever before. \u201cBeing a lawyer\u201d is next. For better or worse, being a lawyer infects one\u2019s entire being; if you don\u2019t love this job, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFree advice – John Bodle, Attorney at Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/free-advice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Free advice – John Bodle, Attorney at Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Family is first for me, and I find myself feeling more helpful, more generous, more forgiving, with my family, both those closest to me and those more distant, now more than ever before. \u201cBeing a lawyer\u201d is next. For better or worse, being a lawyer infects one\u2019s entire being; if you don\u2019t love this job, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/free-advice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Bodle, Attorney at Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-27T20:10:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-05T14:48:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/\",\"name\":\"John Bodle, Attorney at Law\",\"description\":\"Lawrence (785) 843-0187\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/free-advice\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/free-advice\/\",\"name\":\"Free advice – John Bodle, Attorney at Law\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-27T20:10:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-05T14:48:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/free-advice\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":[\"Person\"],\"@id\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":769,"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnbodlelaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}