We are always open to improvement! If you have any problems with our reporting forms, websites, or procedures let us know right away. Your suggestions are always welcome. Please email your thoughts to [email protected]

1. What is the fee I get paid? (avg. range of $70 – $300 per appearance)

                 In Person: (Infrequent)
              We pay $110 for the First hour and $50/hr thereafter for actual time spent plus parking with receipt.

                Many courts still require in person appearances in criminal and family law matters as examples. 

                  Remote:
               We pay $70 for the First hour and $50/hr thereafter for actual time spent. We do require strict accounting of the time as the lawyers using our service always look for padding of the bill.

                 Many courts now prefer that appearances be made remotely. The perks are self-evident. In many instances it is audio only and nobody can see that you’re still in bed sipping on a latte. For video appearances only your upper body is visible and then only when your case is called. Nobody knows you’re in your underwear and shoeless.  No driving. No gasoline expense. No parking fees. No exposure to COVID or Monkey Pox infected people.

                    Depositions: (We only defend)

                     Remote:
                  We cover all of California and pay $70 for the First hour and $50/hr thereafter for actual time spent. We do require strict accounting of the time as the lawyers using our service always look for padding of the bill.

In some 90% of the cases you just take notes and sit there and look for objections to the form of the question inasmuch as just about any question is otherwise allowed 

ut any question is otherwise allowed by the CCP. You keep track of all your time including preparation, review of documents and exhibits, conferences with attorney of record (AOR), and deponent interviews.

                       In Person:
                   We pay $110 for the First hour and $50/hr thereafter plus parking with a receipt.

2.  CAN I NEGOTIATE A DIFFERENT FEE?:

      DEPENDS. 

      Depending on the special circumstances of an appearance assignment e.g. location, complexity, etc.  We will consider a reasonable adjustment to our normal fee payment.

3.  WHY DON’T YOU CHARGE MORE SO I CAN GET PAID MORE?

      We are in competition with other services.  We provide a top quality service but when attorneys under pressure shop, they look at the price and take about 5 seconds to go to the cheaper service, just like you would.

4.  WHY DON’T YOU TAKE LESS SO I CAN GET MORE?

      We pay you the same day you make an appearance, whether or not we get paid.  There are attorneys who will cheat us by not paying for our service.  We not only have the expense and 24/7 stress of marketing and fielding calls, and of placing the orders with lawyers like you, but the hassle of playing bill collector.  We maintain a highly efficient website developed over a 12 year period.  Volume is what allows us to do well by spreading out the losses we incur over the paying customers.

5.  HOW CAN I MAKE THIS A GOOD MONEYMAKER FOR ME?

       Use your time efficiently.  

      I know, it’s one of those “duh” comments. Most hearings require 3-5 minutes or less of actual in court activity, the balance is spent sitting and doing nothing.  $70 for 3 minutes of actual work while in bed is a rate of $1,400/hr. You can do other work while waiting.

         Make simple appearances even though out of your general preference area.

        Many appearances are very simple which any competent attorney with some common sense can make.  Examples: a request for continuance; a Case Management Conference; a Trial Setting; a Bankruptcy Creditors Meeting.  The AOR provides the necessary documents and the appearance attorney simply tells the court what is on them.  “Attorney Doe is in trial and needs a 30 day continuance.  The following dates are not available for her.”  We do NOT plan strategy, give legal advice, draft documents, or assume the role of counsel of record.  We simply appear for the attorney that can’t make it to court and state his/her position to the court.  Common Sense!

6.  WHY DO YOU USE PAYPAL TO PAY ME?

       It is the world’s largest and safest online service for making payments.  You don’t have to be a member, so just think of it as an online ATM or card reader.  This allows us to send payment immediately to you to your phone, email, or PayPal account.  No waiting up to 60 days (as with our competitors) for payment.  With SAL you get same day payment.

7.  CAN YOU SEND ME A CHECK OR OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT?

      NO to checks.  In todays’ cyber business world hardly anyone uses checks. We are working on other forms of payment, in particular Venmo, AppleCash, GooglePay and possibly Zelle.  Please keep in mind that paying you for a court appearance is a commercial transaction .  We cannot pretend that it is a payment to a “friend” so you can avoid the nominal fee charged by the service.  If you have any suggestions as to other alternatives please let us know.

8.  THERE’S A FEE FOR USING PAYPAL WHY?

      As most payment services, they charge a fee for commercial transactions which paying you for a service is.  We don’t get any portion of what PayPal charges.  The fee is minimal and akin to an ATM usage fee.

9.  HOW ARE ASSIGNMENTS OFFERED?

      Assignments are initially offered to the attorneys according to the preferences they filled out on our form.  Example:  An order for an appearance at Stanley Mosk in downtown L.A. is offered via text message to the attorneys who showed that courthouse in their preferences.  It is FIRST COME FIRST SERVED.  Which means you’re in competition with the other roster attorneys so you need to respond ASAP.

HINT: Set a unique ring on your smart phone for assignment offers, as they often go very fast.

10.  HOW ARE ASSIGNMENTS ACCEPTED?

       You accept an assignment by reply text message.  This means you can do it from anywhere any time. We will immediately confirm that you got the assignment via text.  You will then receive a Google Calendar invitation by email with all the particulars about the assignment, and links to all the documents we can provide.  You need to accept the invitation, which is your confirmation that you are going to show up.  Whenever there are additional documents or instructions and comments to be made to the assignment they will be placed on the calendar.  You are automatically notified of the changes and additions by the calendar as they happen.

11.  HOW DO I SET UP MY CALENDAR?

       Sorry, we don’t do tech support.  However, every calendaring system regularly used out there is able to link to the invitations we send.  Check your help menu on your system or Google.  Usually it is a very simple process.  Because we use Google Forms and Google Calendar, it is highly recommended that you get a free Gmail address.  With other email addresses we encounter lots of issues: can’t accept the invitation; can’t download the documents; don’t receive notices of changes to the calendar.

12.  HOW DO I MAKE MY APPEARANCE REPORTS?

        We have different report forms for Depositions, Civil, Criminal, Family, Probate, UD and Bankruptcy.  You will find them on the website in the SAL Lawyers area.  Please use the correct form.

          Be professional about filling the form out.  This is the most common problem area.  Don’t try abbreviations and short cuts.  The forms are PROGRAMMED to react to different input and are unforgiving.  Example: If the date format is not correct, the result can be gibberish.  If you use abbreviations it can produce a report that looks unprofessional, and worse yet, as if you didn’t care enough to to do it right.   In each instance you are given an example of the format that is NEEDED for the form to function correctly