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20 Sep, 2019 by Richard
Scott represented me in a DUI case in 2016. He charged an affordable flat-rate fee. He was able to help me through expectations of not just the court case, but pre/post interactions that I was unfamiliar with. Scott worked around my schedule to find times for us to meet. The case went exactly as we'd expected. I witnessed others, on the same day, in similar situations that decided to self-represent and received significantly more severe outcomes than my own.
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06 Apr, 2024 by Tiffany alexander
Amazing team of people. There is so much heart in everything they do!
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06 Dec, 2023 by Tamara kiel
There just can’t be better attorneys and staff than everyone working with Blake and Laura. They are all so kind and comforting and KNOWLEDGEABLE!
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05 Dec, 2023 by Nancy groover
Worst attorneys I had experience with he was rude lied if more then one sibling watch out
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12 Mar, 2019 by Taylor street
Knows what you need. And is the best medical lawyer out there.
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27 Mar, 2018 by Heather coffelt
08 Jul, 2017 by Patricia ball-hertz
15 Oct, 2022 by Anonymous
Did not follow through with what he said. Unresponsive to requests for update.
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12 Nov, 2013 by Frederick
Mr. Rocker has been nothing short of extraordinary in handling my affairs and the affairs of my company. As having been caught up in the real estate bubble several years back, my company has had its share of turmoil. Mr. Rocker has been there and continues to be here every step of the way. In addition to company issues that stemmed from the "bubble" bursting, personal issues have come my way as well. Jeff has handled each case with the utmost attention to detail. He continues to carefully explain his thought process and strategy in dealing with each situation as if it and I were his only case. His very thorough analysis of cases have shed light to our benefit in more than one instance. He has a very hard to find ability to articulate extremely technical legal terms and statements into more common terms that a non-lawyer such as myself may understand and use to make informed decisions with his guidance. For me, Jeff posses a valuable attribute in his follow-ups. He ALWAYS gets back to me the same day or as close to it as possible. I can be somewhat of a high-maintenance client and you would never know it by the way Jeff and his entire team at Beck Rocker treat me. They're never snarky or sound as if they'd like to say, "it him again." In fact, the team at Beck Rocker sound delighted and very enthusiastic when I call or run by the office.
In closing, I can't imagine having gone through the past eight years without Mr. Rocker as my counsel. I certainly don't plan on navigating the next eight years with any other attorney.
If you are reading this and are in need of a mindful, trustworthy, distinguished, astute, loyal, dependable, and "leave no stone unturned" attorney, Mr. Jeffrey Rocker is the attorney you've been searching for!
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11 Aug, 2013 by Alex
Jeff Rocker and his team were great at helping me set up a complex estate planning strategy. Revocable trust fund, last will and some business ownership structures. He was crystal clear when explaining all the options as well as the pros and cons associated with them. He and his team were also very fast in setting this up - I was the bottleneck in getting all the information to them. Jeff was recommended to me by other Indiana lawyers that do their estate planning with Jeff Rocker
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07 Jun, 2024 by Carmona
I give a 5 star review because this firm has gave me something nobody else could have, respect, patience, and the ability to work through anything I recommend this firm to anyone you needs serious help, tim coriden fought hard for me Evan when i was ready to be done with everything, tim pushed to get what I was entitled to and deserved
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14 Nov, 2023 by Nicholas chaney
Tim helped my family and I during an extremely stressful time. For a while we managed with the nurses and doctors and work comp. After a while it became a headache with trying to raise a family and recover and go back to a normal life for my family. I could thank Tim or Emily enough. It was almost a year and a half process and Tim helped walk me through every question and outcome before we faced it. Thank you Coriden and Coriden.
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18 Oct, 2023 by Collin sexton
I look forward to seeing what they can do for my girlfriend and I!
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26 Jul, 2024 by Mindy johnson
At the end of 2021 I retained Dan Patterson to modify a prejudicial custody order my ex husband obtained under false pretenses when I was denied substantive due process and put a stop to unauthorized restrictions my ex-husband was imposing on me outside of the bounds of that custody order. Dan erroneously insisted there was nothing I could do about any of it, even my ex’s unauthorized self imposed restrictions, except wait a year after the date of the order and file a modification, which he did. Years later I discovered Dan could have intervened and did not, he could have served a cease and desist or petitioned for substantive relief of my ex’s interferences regardless of custody and he could have filed an amendment to the order to address contentions arising from the order sooner than a custody modification.,In January 2022 he filed a motion to modify custody AND ALL ANCILLARY ISSUES. Additionally what Dan should have done was petition the court to allow him to file a memorandum because the issues were far too complex and nuanced for oral argument. When the hearing actually occurred on January 4, 2024 two years later after being continued ten times Dan neglected to review his own petition for the hearing and failed to properly advocate that he requested to modify all ancillary issues in addition to custody when the ancillary issues were not modified after the hearing. In fact, Dan did not preserve any of my rights his defensive strategy as a litigator effectively amounted to malpractice. He did not advocate for my right to submit evidence prior to the last hearing if it pertains to the factors prescribed under the statute for a custody modification as permitted under IC 31-17–2-21 ( c ) or to demonstrate a pattern of parental misbehavior as permitted by case precedent Arms v. Arms or diligently pursue the court’s preferred position of awarding custody to the parent more likely to foster the relationship and involvement of the other parent as decided in In re S.M.T., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 97181,2012-Ohio-1745, 917, citing C.G. v. C.L., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 90341, 2008-Ohio-3135, 1 13. The most devastating example of Dan’s ineptitude was failing to appropriately advocate that the $10,000 custody evaluation I paid for used the specific statutory language that both my ex husband’s and his wife’s psychological testing was specifically harmful to the emotional development of our children and numerous and continuing violations and interferences amounting to substantial contempt. I served my case to Dan on a silver platter I supplied him with two PhD expert witnesses in my support, one of which Dan let fall out of our grasp by failing to utilize him in a a reasonable time frame (a year and a half), the phenomenal and thorough custody evaluation including the statutory verbage, and even supplying him with the caselaw and statutory support specific to my circumstances and did not engage in discovery or submit any evidence of the substantial and continuing changes or circumstances and violations insisting the custody evaluation demonstrated these well enough but failing to appropriately advocate this to the court. He also at times went even a whole year without sending me any invoices and frequently erroneously charged me for things that did not occur (such as charging me over $1000 for attending a hearing on a date that did not even occur because it was continued). After retaining Dan for more than two years absolutely none of the contentions I retained him for (at a minimum stopping my ex’s unauthorized interferences and modifying prejudicial provisions of our custody order) were addressed by his actions or the order , he insisted his services were concluded because the hearing was commenced. He left me high and dry worse off than he found me because I was in the hole all the legal fees, evaluation fees, and expert witness fees and two years of evidence and incidents denied intervention and he had the audacity to bill me for it and never filed a change of judge, which he recommended, but did not do.
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27 Apr, 2024 by Jeff barnsfather
Dan had requested my daughter come into the office to speak with her about a custody case that he was retained for. I thought nothing of it and ran some errands while he spoke with her. About 10 minutes after I left I received a text from my daughter telling me she was ready to be picked up. When I got back, she was in tears. I never in a million years would have dreamed why she was crying, I assumed it being over custody that he may have said something about the other party that may have upset her, but I was not prepared for what I was about to hear. Once we got a few minutes away from his office is when she told me what he had said. She Informed me that he was making very inappropriate sexualized comments to her almost as soon as I had walked out the door, and even at one point attempted to reach his hand towards, but she stood up and informed him that she would not be speaking with him anymore and walked out of the building. She met me about a block away when I picked her up. When I confronted him about it over the phone as I did not want to catch a charge by what would have happened if I went back in there, he apologized very insincerely. This could not have been the first time he has done something like this. I fear for any more clients that come in that have children of any age as this man is a PREDATOR. I am thankful my daughter was old enough to know what happened was wrong and was able to safely get out of his office. I can't imagine if he were to put a young child in this scenario. If you have used this man as a lawyer and brought your children in PLEASE TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN AND ASK QUESTIONS. Also, needless to say we fired him and he refuses to give us our money back.
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16 Nov, 2023 by Daniel stewart
He can’t even get a warrant, lift it for missing a court day and I was supposed to have court today and he re reschedules for next month and now I will have a warrant for a month
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27 Sep, 2024 by Eli jah
03 May, 2024 by Mike west
Me and my father only went for a consultation but we knew as soon as we spoke with them that they are the best around we had met with 5 other lawyers in the area and they never explained anything to us just that they didn’t want to help us but this place was ready to help and said they could have won our case if we had come to them first our only problem was that our statue of limitations and run out
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09 Feb, 2024 by Rachel gray
They did a great job with a simple estate plan and documentation. The spent lots of time with my family in their lovely conference room to come up with the proper plan before charging any fees.
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01 Oct, 2024 by Michael roberts
I’m surprised to see so many positive reviews to be honest. I felt over charged and had a more similar experience to Kay’s. I didn’t feel like things happened in a timely manner due to no fault of my own and how she dealt with those delays was not to my liking. She was definitely not proactive when it came to that. I was expecting a decent refund because what started out as a potential difficult divorce turned into an uncontested one with no issues whatsoever. So to be charged the majority of my retainer was very much surprising. In fact, had I not complained about the last in office visit, where I originally would have been charged additional time of her apologizing for how things went and discussing cases not related to mine, I would have owed additional money. My attempt to get resolution and a larger refund was met with what appears to be a scare tactic that I would hear from her own attorney. I never once heard anything more from anyone and that was almost a year ago. I was very disappointed to say the least and still upset after all this time. So wanted to share my disastrous experience so others would be aware. I for one wish I would have paid more attention to the one negative review at the time.
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FAQs
Questions? We have answers
What a Probate Lawyer Can Do for You
A probate lawyer assists with the legal process of administering a deceased person’s estate. This often involves guiding executors (if a will exists) or beneficiaries (if no will exists) through the probate process to settle the estate according to the deceased’s wishes or applicable laws. Probate lawyers can help validate the will, distribute assets, resolve disputes among heirs, handle outstanding debts or taxes, and ensure the estate is legally and efficiently administered.
Whether you’re an executor of an estate or an heir facing probate proceedings, a probate lawyer can help you navigate the often-complex legal process to ensure the estate is settled correctly.
When Should I Hire a Probate Lawyer?
You should consider hiring a probate lawyer when you are responsible for managing the estate of a deceased individual, especially in the following situations:
- The estate has substantial assets: If the estate includes significant assets like real estate, investments, or business interests, legal assistance is often necessary to handle the distribution properly.
- The will is being contested: If there are disputes among heirs regarding the validity of the will or the division of assets, a probate lawyer can help resolve the conflict.
- The estate includes complex or unclear provisions: If the will contains complicated instructions or there are no clear beneficiaries, a lawyer can ensure that the estate is administered according to legal requirements.
- There is no will (intestate estate): When a person dies without a will, the estate is subject to intestacy laws, which determine how assets are distributed. A probate lawyer can help navigate this process.
- Debt or tax issues exist: If the estate owes significant debts or is subject to estate taxes, a probate lawyer can help ensure debts are paid appropriately and taxes are minimized.
- Probate disputes: If family members or other parties are disputing the distribution of assets or challenging the executor's actions, legal representation is crucial to defending your rights and ensuring the estate is handled properly.
Hiring a probate lawyer early in the process can help avoid costly mistakes and ensure the estate is settled efficiently.
What Does a Probate Lawyer Do?
A probate lawyer provides a wide range of legal services to help manage and settle an estate. Their tasks can include:
- Validating the will: Filing the will with the probate court and ensuring its legal validity.
- Guiding executors or administrators: Advising the person responsible for managing the estate on their duties, including inventorying assets, notifying creditors, and paying debts.
- Filing necessary paperwork: Preparing and submitting the legal documents required to initiate and complete the probate process.
- Resolving disputes: Mediating or litigating disputes among heirs or between beneficiaries and executors, including challenges to the will or disagreements over asset distribution.
- Handling debt and tax matters: Ensuring that outstanding debts, taxes, and estate taxes are properly calculated and paid from the estate’s assets.
- Distributing assets: Ensuring that assets are distributed to the beneficiaries according to the will or intestacy laws, and that all legal requirements are fulfilled.
- Closing the estate: Completing the final steps of the probate process, including filing a final accounting with the court and formally closing the estate.
How Are Probate Lawyers Paid?
Probate lawyers typically charge for their services based on the complexity of the estate and the nature of the legal work involved. Common payment structures include:
- Hourly rate: Most probate lawyers charge by the hour, with rates depending on the lawyer’s experience and the complexity of the estate. Hourly rates can range from $150 to $500 or more.
- Flat fee: For simple estates or straightforward probate tasks, some lawyers may charge a flat fee that covers all of the necessary legal work.
- Percentage of the estate: In some states, probate lawyers are allowed to charge a percentage of the estate's value as their fee. This percentage typically ranges from 2% to 5%, depending on the size of the estate and state regulations.
- Retainer fee: Some lawyers may require an upfront retainer fee, which is billed against as the probate process progresses.
It’s important to clarify the fee structure during your initial consultation to understand how you will be charged and avoid unexpected costs.
How Much Does a Probate Lawyer Cost?
The cost of hiring a probate lawyer depends on several factors, including the complexity of the estate, the type of legal issues involved, and the lawyer’s fee structure. General cost estimates include:
- Simple estates: For estates with straightforward assets and no disputes, probate legal fees can range from $2,500 to $10,000, depending on the lawyer's fees and the state's probate laws.
- Complex estates: For larger or more complicated estates with multiple properties, business interests, or disputes, probate costs can exceed $10,000 and may reach $20,000 or more.
- Hourly rates: If charged by the hour, expect rates between $150 and $500, depending on the lawyer’s expertise and geographic location.
- Percentage fees: In some cases, a probate lawyer may charge 2% to 5% of the estate’s value, particularly for larger estates or those involving complex legal matters.
Always ask for a clear estimate of fees during your initial consultation to understand the total cost of probate representation.
Top Questions to Ask a Probate Lawyer
Before hiring a probate lawyer, it’s essential to ask the right questions to ensure you’re hiring someone qualified to handle your estate needs. Key questions include:
-
What experience do you have with probate cases like mine?
Ensure the lawyer has experience with estates of similar complexity, especially if disputes or high-value assets are involved. -
How do you charge for your services?
Ask whether the lawyer charges an hourly rate, a flat fee, or a percentage of the estate, and request a cost estimate. -
What is the likely timeline for my probate case?
While it’s hard to predict exactly, an experienced lawyer can give you a general idea of how long the probate process may take based on the specifics of your estate. -
What steps will you take to manage and distribute the estate?
Ask about the lawyer’s approach to handling debts, taxes, and asset distribution. -
Will you be handling my case personally?
In larger firms, junior attorneys or paralegals may handle some aspects of your case, so it’s important to know who will be working on your probate case. -
What are potential challenges we may face?
A good lawyer will be able to anticipate possible issues, such as will contests or creditor claims, and explain how they would handle them.
How to Check the Credibility of a Probate Lawyer
To ensure you’re hiring a reputable probate lawyer, follow these steps to check their credentials and experience:
- Verify their state bar status: Check with your state’s bar association to confirm the lawyer is licensed to practice and has no history of disciplinary action.
- Look for probate experience: Review the lawyer’s website or professional profile to ensure they specialize in probate law and have experience handling estates of similar complexity.
- Read client reviews and testimonials: Look for online reviews on platforms like Avvo or Martindale-Hubbell to see what past clients have said about the lawyer’s probate experience.
- Ask for references: A credible lawyer should be able to provide references from past clients who can vouch for their professionalism and expertise in handling probate matters.
- Look for membership in professional organizations: Membership in organizations like the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys (AAEPA) or the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) can indicate a lawyer's commitment to estate and probate law.
What Should I Prepare for My First Consultation?
To make the most out of your first consultation with a probate lawyer, it’s important to come prepared with relevant documents and information. Here’s what you should bring:
- A copy of the will or trust (if applicable): Bring any estate planning documents left by the deceased, including wills, trusts, or powers of attorney.
- List of assets and debts: Prepare a detailed list of the deceased’s assets (e.g., real estate, bank accounts, investments) and outstanding debts (e.g., loans, mortgages, credit cards).
- Death certificate: Bring a certified copy of the deceased person’s death certificate.
- Contact information for heirs and beneficiaries: Have a list of all individuals or entities named in the will or who are entitled to inherit under intestacy laws.
- Questions about the probate process: Write down any questions you have about the process, costs, and potential issues you might face.
- Relevant financial records: If available, bring any relevant financial documents, such as bank statements, property deeds, and tax returns.
By coming prepared, you can ensure a productive consultation and allow the lawyer to provide the best advice for your situation.
