Hello, my name is Otis Landerholm. I'm an immigration lawyer and I fight for the rights of immigrants who are hoping to stay in the United States. If you're watching this, then thank you. You've already called my office, you've had a free case evaluation with one of our office's paralegals. And that paralegal has decided that you may have a case, or that you have a case that it is worth having a consultation about and really getting more in depth about your situation.

So, congratulations for that, and I'm very glad that you've taken the first step towards seeking legal help and towards seeking professional advice. What I want to talk about today is really the value of the legal consultation.

So, in a consultation -- and, really, I should back up slightly -- our office charges $125 for our legal consultations. And the reason I want to be very clear, very straightforward, very honest about that, is because I really do not want you to pay your money and to spend your time coming into my office and having a consultation unless you really think that it's worth it for you.

I don't want it to be either a waste of your time or a waste of your money, all right? So that's why I'm doing this video, to sort of explain what the consultation is about. So, in a consultation we basically do three things. And I'll say our consultations are usually 45 minutes face to face with the attorney. We ask that you arrive 15 minutes beforehand to take care of various issues. We send you a questionnaire beforehand that asks for a lot of information.

Because I can't do my job and I can't give you good legal advice unless I know a lot of information about your situation, okay? But, if you come in, and if you give that information, the first thing that I'm really going to want to do is, I'm going to want to get to know your story, get to know you, okay?

So, the first step, I'll be asking you about when you came to the United States, why you came to the United States, were you traveling alone or with family, do you have family here now, how many years have you been in the U.S., what are your goals for staying in the United States in the future, right? All of these things I want to understand.

While I'm asking for this information from you, I'm going to be evaluating your options, okay? Your options to stay. So, really, the first thing and the first goal of any legal consultation is to see what options you have. The second goal is to talk about strategy, okay?

Look, people often have more than one option, and maybe one option is stronger and one option is weaker, right? And so, in that situation, it's important to think about what is really the best strategy to try to get the goal. To achieve whatever it is that you are looking to achieve, all right? And then, the third thing that we want to do in a consultation is really see if we are a good potential fit to work together as an attorney and client, okay?

So, part of that is really coming to make a decision about whether it makes sense to hire my office and whether it makes sense from my office, to work on your case. And so, those three things are really all that the consultation is about.

Along with those things, though, we like to provide a lot of information. And so, we can give you check lists about any particular process that you are looking to do. We can give you a step by step guide about how we go from point A to point B, you know? If the goal is applying for a green card, we can explain step by step by step exactly how you should go about getting the green card in your situation, okay?

So, part of that is, in my office I like -- and I think it's incredibly important -- to stay on the same page and to be mutually informed about each step and each phase of any legal process. And so, that's important to me. I want you to understand, not only what this consultation is about, but once you're in the consultation, I want you to really understand the legal service that you may be hiring my office to help you with, okay?

So, that's it. And, hopefully, you see the value in the consultation. And I hope to see you for a legal consultation soon. Thank you very much. Bye.

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