What is a consultation?
A
consultation is a private meeting with an attorney, in person or over
the phone, where the attorney:
1) Listens to your
concerns,
2) Determines the legally relevant
facts,
3) Explains what laws apply to those facts and how,
4) Evaluates your best options under the circumstances, and
5) Helps you
devise a
plan of action to help you achieve your goals.
Why
a
consultation?
There are few
short-answer questions
about vaccine legal exemptions.
They can involve state and federal statutes, regulations, constitutions
and legal precedent. Rights can vary--sometimes dramatically--with
different facts, circumstances and geographic locations.
Relevant
Concerns:
As with other important legal matters, "what you don't know that you
don't know" can get you into trouble with vaccine exemptions. See "An
Introduction to the Law on Vaccine Religious Exemptions"
for more
insight.
Attorneys who have not researched vaccine exemptions often speculate
erroneously about it, so it is important to consult one knowledgeable
in this specific area of the law. Also, many reputable Internet sites
that have good information about vaccine health concerns have a mixture
of accurate and inaccurate information about vaccine legal exemptions,
even some of the more reputable ones,
so make sure your information source is a reliable,
authoritative one. Some people have unnecessarily lost their
exemption due to their reliance on information from
the Internet. Even those people whose
exemption claims are initially accepted may be at risk of a future
challenge if they haven't strictly complied with the legal
requirements.
Practical
Considerations:
Local officials often resist citizens' legitimate efforts to exercise
lawful exemptions to
immunizations, so it is important to know your legal
rights, and to be
prepared to assert them in a potentially hostile environment if
necessary. You can wait to see if there's a problem and consult an
attorney later if one comes up, but sometimes, that's too late. Fixing
a
problem after the fact can be more difficult and costly.
Getting proper
legal advice in advance can prevent many problems from happening in the
first place, saving you a lot of time, money and frustration.
Cost:
Vaccine exemption consultations usually take an hour and a half and are
modestly priced. If a Legal Opinion Letter, Affidavit, Legal Brief of
Memorandum is needed and requested, there is a separate charge. Alan
offers a discount for low-income individuals and families. Contact Attorney
Phillips for current rates.
Please note that it is customary in the
practice of law for payment to be required in advance, to
avoid the need for attorneys to spend uncompensated time later
collecting on past due fees
for services already provided. Should
the actual time billed be less than the amount of the advance fee paid,
the unused portion of the advance fee is
refunded. If initial advance fees run out before work is
completed, additional advance fees may be required before work
can
continue.
Scheduling:
To schedule a private, confidential in-person or telephone
consultation, or to request other legal services, contact
Attorney Phillips.
Consultation
or
E-Book?
The
Authoritative Guide to Vaccine Legal Exemption
e-book provides
detailed insight into the many legal and practical components of
vaccine exemptions in a wide variety of settings, and can help you
assess if a consultation is appropriate for you. The e-book provides
greater breadth and depth of the law than you will get in a
consultation and makes a great reference source. However, a
consultation provides you with an assessment of how the law applies to
your specific situation, gives you the opportunity to ask questions and
discuss
potential courses of action and probable outcomes, and gives you the
benefit of invaluable experience for the best wording of your
exemption
beliefs--detailed personalization that you can't get from a book.
 Research
and Writing
In some situations, a letter,
affidavit, legal memo or brief is needed. Letters and affidavits are
usually provided for a flat fee equal to about one billable hour. Extra
copies with minimal or no changes, often requested for additional
family
members or updates,
are charged a smaller fee per copy. Legal briefs and memos are
usually more
extensive
writings and are billed at an hourly rate. For current rates, please contact
Attorney Phillips.
"WOW!!! I was blown away
by what a GREAT memorandum you wrote . . .
I can't imagine a better memorandum could have been written!!!"
LK, November 2009
More
Unsolicited Testimonials
Questions?
Contact
Attorney Phillips, or click here
to learn more.
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