Family Law Mediation Services
Serving the Greater Fort Lauderdale Area
Law Office of Carrie Andersen
29 Office locations to choose from in Boca Raton, Coral Springs, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale (Main Office), Hollywood, Miramar, Plantation, Sunrise & Weston
Law Office of Carrie Andersen is committed to providing high quality, personalized representation. Carrie encourages a collaborative approach, stressing mediation and negotiation whenever possible. She is experienced and compassionate, recognizing that every case is unique. We work together as a team. Clients receive copies of each document involving their case and are engaged throughout the process. We love kids and proudly offer a child-friendly office environment. Whenever children are involved in the legal process, our focus is on what is best for them.
As the mediator, Carrie is nether your lawyer, nor is she the judge or a decision maker. She is an experienced, impartial person whose role is to provide options for the parties and to provide an atmosphere that is conducive to reaching an agreement. She recognizes that litigation is not only expensive, but it also hands over control of the most important parts of people’s lives to a system that is not equipped to handle the complex interpersonal dynamics associated with families in conflict means that she is dedicated to helping people craft their own futures.
The mediator has no decision-making power. Thus, it is important for you to consider how you can best represent your interests in mediation, as well as the results that you would like to create in mediation.
Large law firms have a structure. On any given case, you will likely have a senior partner, junior partner/senior associate, and an associate assigned to your case. Each has billable hour requirements. There is also likely to be a paralegal and/or legal secretary working on your case. The odds are that 60-70 percent of the substantive work on your case is going to be handled by the lowest rung on the ladder, i.e., the associate. The junior partner/senior associate is likely to do 20-30% of the work, and the senior partner will likely do anywhere from 0-10% of the work.
When you hire a law firm, you generally hire the senior partner. The senior partner has his or her name on the firm’s letterhead and trophies of his successes on the wall. And then you sign the fee agreement and shake the senior partner’s hand, oftentimes speaking to the senior partner for the last time. The junior partner/senior associate takes over the big picture handling of your file, and the junior associate – trying to make his or her billable hour requirement in order to make senior associate or junior partner – gets tasked with the day-to-day operation of the file.
Law firms make money by billing, and therefore law firms tend to be really good at billing. Some cases may be complex enough to require a team of lawyers and the built-in support of a law firm; most are not. It is not uncommon for a law firm to bill $30,000 – 40,000 per month on a file.
I am a sole practitioner. I have resources available to me as needed, including experienced contract lawyers (i.e., lawyers who will pick up projects on short notice) and paralegal support. But for the most part, every facet and aspect of my practice has my hands on it. When you call, I answer. When you email, I respond, and generally very quickly.
The fundamental question you should ask me is whether I have the resources to handle your case. If it’s too complex I will tell you so, and I will refer you on to a firm that bills ethically and has the structure to competently handle your case. Otherwise, in my opinion you are much better off with the sole practitioner who has low overhead and no billable hours requirement than the firm with the marble floors that requires its associates and junior partners to bill 200 hours per month.
As I offer a free initial consultation, I am happy to discuss structure further with you if that is a concern. I would also like to note, in closing, that I do not charge clients for telephone calls between the client and I, as it is my belief that a client should be free to call with a question or concern, or to provide information to me that will help me with his or her case.
