Asked often. Answered plainly.

The initial consultation is a flat $150, credited in full against your fee if you engage the firm within thirty days. It is a working session, not a sales call: you will leave with our read of your situation and a written fee quote, whether or not you hire us.

Estate planning and defined business projects are flat fees, quoted in writing before you commit. Probate and family law are billed hourly against a retainer, with a written budget at the outset and monthly statements that itemize the work in plain English. You will never open an invoice and meet a surprise.

Yes. Every attorney at the firm is admitted in both states. For families and businesses in a metro that straddles State Line Road, this is not a luxury; property, courts, and statutes change at the curb.

Yes. Planning conferences and most consultations work well by video, and many clients complete everything except the final signing remotely. Signings happen at our Plaza office, where we provide the witnesses and notary that Missouri and Kansas formalities require.

Calls and messages received during business hours are returned the same day, by the next morning at the latest. It is a small policy that does more for our clients' peace of mind than most of our diplomas.

The intestacy statutes decide who inherits, in fixed shares that know nothing about your family. A surviving spouse may share the estate with children or other relatives, unmarried partners receive nothing, and the court chooses the administrator. It is rarely what the person would have chosen, which is the argument for choosing.

Only for property titled in your sole name with no beneficiary designation. Trust assets, joint accounts, payable-on-death designations, and recorded beneficiary deeds all pass outside probate. Whether probate is worth planning around depends on what you own and how; that is the first question a consultation answers.

Generally a will validly executed elsewhere is recognized, but powers of attorney and health care documents travel poorly in practice, and titling strategies do not travel at all. If you have moved to Missouri or Kansas, a review is usually short and always worth it.

A rough list of what you own and roughly what it is worth, recent statements for retirement accounts and life insurance, any existing documents, and your questions. Do not tidy any of it; we are very good at rough lists.

Missouri imposes a thirty-day minimum from filing to judgment, and Kansas sixty; genuinely agreed cases often finish close to those floors. Contested matters are governed by the court's calendar and the parties' appetite for conflict, and can run a year or more. We will give you an honest range once we know which kind of case you have.

Generally the state where the filing spouse meets residency requirements, and for custody, the child's home state under the uniform jurisdiction rules. In a metro where families move across State Line without noticing, this question decides more cases than people expect, and it is worth answering before anyone files.

An agreed divorce still produces a judgment that binds you for decades, and support obligations a court must approve. Having us paper an agreement you have already reached is some of the least expensive insurance the legal profession sells.