Book a consult

# More than an answer. A plan

Most questions have free answers, so [use the free lane](/contact), seriously. A consult is for when the situation has too many moving parts for an email: scheduled time, my full attention, and something written you can hand to your family afterward.

### What consults cover

Sentencing prep and PSR (the report that follows you the whole sentence) review, before that document follows your loved one around for a decade. Self-surrender (reporting to prison on your own) planning: what to bring, what happens the first week, what to tell your kids. Designation (which prison you're assigned to) strategy, RDAP (a drug program that can cut up to a year) eligibility, First Step Act credits (time off earned through programming), halfway house (the halfway house before release) and home confinement (finishing a sentence at home under monitoring) planning. Family logistics: money, phones, TRULINCS (the inmate email/phone/money system, all monitored), visits, staying sane.

### How it works

1. Email a few sentences about what you're facing, to the same address as any other question. No documents, no dossier.
2. I tell you honestly whether a consult is worth your money. Often it isn't, in which case you'll get the free answer instead, and that's the end of the transaction.
3. If it is, we schedule the calls. The rate is public, printed right below, before you commit. No hourly meter, no retainer, no packages with tiers.
4. Afterward you get the plan in writing: what to do, in what order, and what to ignore.

Limited Basis
The hand-raise

What happens next

1. I email you first, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job.
2. We figure out together whether a consult is worth your money. The screening is free.
3. If it's not a fit, you'll get your answers anyway, free, and we're done. No follow-up sequence, no "circling back."

**How this form works:** it's a hand-raise, not a booking. _I reach out to you first_, to make sure a consult is actually a good fit before you spend a dollar. The screening costs nothing and obligates you to nothing. If your questions have free answers, that's what you'll get, and that's the end of it. Nobody has ever been invoiced for being told they don't need me.

Rather skip the form? [Just ask your question](/contact). Free is the default here.

The fine print

### What it costs

$1,000 for three hours on Zoom. Not three hours straight, because nobody can absorb three hours of this at once. We split it into two 90-minute calls or three 60-minute calls, your pick, spaced a few days apart on purpose: you take what we covered, sit with it, and come back with the questions you didn't know you had. The second call is always better than the first for exactly that reason.

A sliding scale is available. Money shouldn't be the reason a family walks into this unprepared, so if $1,000 isn't realistic right now, say so in the first email and we'll land on a number that is. You don't have to prove anything or explain your finances. Ask.

### Availability

A few slots a month, and that's deliberate. Every consult gets my full attention before, during, and between the calls, and that only works if I keep the count low. I'd rather turn you down than take your money at half attention. When the slots are gone, they're gone, but the [free lane](/contact) stays open regardless. Wondering whether your situation is even in my lane? Read [who I work best with](/good-fit) first; it's the honest map.

### What a consult is not

Not legal advice, because I'm not a lawyer, and anything with a case caption needs one. Not a [facility placement service](/resources/facility-placement), because those don't exist. Not [motion drafting or a "packet,"](/resources/non-lawyer-legal-work) because that's a crime with an invoice attached. If what you need is a lawyer, step one of the plan will be "get a lawyer," and I'll say it for free.