Fees & Costs

Steve Scott

Attorney at Law

Serving Landlords, Individuals
and Small Businesses

Vanessa Reynolds

Legal Assistant

Fees & Costs

Scott Law Firm strives to make the cost of its landlord-tenant legal services predictable and economical by using a flat-fee system for most services. Our fee schedule effective January 1, 2008 is summarized in the table below. Fees are subject to change after December 31, 2008. Court costs are summarized in a separate table after the fee schedule. We invoice established clients for fees and costs. First-time clients may be asked for advance payment.

Fee Schedule

Uncontested residential or commercial landlord-tenant lawsuit	$85.00
Services included in the above fees include preparing and filing suit, making first court appearance, preparing judgment, and communicating with client and tenant as necessary. The fee is the same for one defendant or multiple defendants.
Surcharge if lawsuit information is not submitted on our Form 05LS	$20.00
Surcharge if signed verification must be obtained and filed with court after lawsuit is filed	$10.00
Trial of contested residential or commercial landlord-tenant lawsuit	$125.00
The trial fee will be billed if the tenant contests the lawsuit and we must prepare for trial, even if the case is later resolved by default or settlement. At our discretion, we may elect to reduce this fee if the case is settled before we begin trial preparation, depending on the time involved in settlement negotiations and preparing settlement documents. Services include trial preparation, conducting the trial, preparing judgment, and communicating with the client as necessary. This fee assumes no discovery procedures, no jury trial and no necessity to defend a claim or counterclaim by tenant(s). Discovery, jury trials and defense of tenant claims will be billed at our normal hourly rate of $150/hour.
Minimum flat fee for extra court appearances (preparation, appearance and report to client)	$20.00
Preparing or responding to discovery requests, correspondence with attorneys representing tenants, jury trials and defense of tenant claims or counterclaims	$175/hour
Preparation of witness subpoenas, if needed, and arranging service thereof	$25/subpoena
Customization of all recommended notice forms for a particular landlord	$85.00
Modification of recommended notice form or special notice not included in recommended forms	$25/page
Prepare and file request for execution for possession	$20.00
Prepare and file first request for garnishment	$30.00
Prepare and file second and subsequent requests for garnishment (additional time required to compute amount due after credits)	$40.00
Training session to teach landlord to issue garnishments, including provision of necessary forms	$85.00
Preparation of leasing forms package (paper copies only)	$85.00
Preparation of leasing forms package (paper and electronic copies)	$105.00

Costs

The following costs apply only for Boone County, Missouri. For service by the sheriff, the
sheriff's fee of $20 per defendant is included in the filing fees set out in the following table.

Boone County Filing Fees	Possession at issue - service by sheriff	Possession at issue - service by special process server	Possession not at issue - service by sheriff	Possession not at issue - service by special process server
1 defendant	$63.00	$43.00	$53.00	$33.00
2 defendants	$93.00	$53.00	$73.00	$33.00
3 defendants	$123.00	$63.00	$93.00	$33.00
4 defendants	$153.00	$73.00	$113.00	$33.00
5 defendants	$183.00	$83.00	$133.00	$33.00

If you desire to serve one or more defendants by posting and certified mail, there is an additional $10.00 filing fee for each defendant to be served in this manner. These cases can be served by either the sheriff or a special process server, but we recommend the sheriff because it is slightly less expensive.

The special process servers we use usually charge $25 to $30 per defendant served, slightly 5 more than the Boone County Sheriff charges. Because we get prompt and reliable service from our special process servers, unless you instruct us to use the sheriff, we will use one of our special process servers.

NOTE: Each person liable on the lease (i.e., who signed the lease) should be named as a defendant, as well as all other adults residing in the leased premises whether or not they signed the lease, because you cannot evict a person you did not name as a defendant.

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Inquiries about legal representation and comments about this web site may be emailed to sscott@scottlawfirm.com. We will endeavor to respond promptly but will not provide specific legal advice by email except to established clients. Please see our Notices and Disclaimers. Except as otherwise noted on particular pages, this entire web site is Copyright � 1998-2007 by Scott Law Firm Professional Corporation, Columbia, Missouri, U.S.A. Except as otherwise authorized with respect to landlord forms, site visitors may reproduce materials on this site for personal use only. All copies of copyrighted pages must include our copyright notice.