Website Terms of Use

CHANGES:
Changes to this website and to these terms of use may be made at anytime, for any reason, without any notice. 

COPYRIGHT:
All text, images, and content on this website are protected by U.S. and International copyright laws. 

ACCURACY:
Guam Family Law has made every attempt to represent itself, its work, its words, and all the content on this website with exact and complete accuracy. In the event you find any inaccuracies, please contact Guam Family Law Office immediately, via e-mail: [email protected]. 

ADULT USE:
This Website is intended, but not restricted, for adult use only, and Guam Family Law Office does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 or not deemed an adult under the law of the jurisdiction from which the individual is accessing this website.

PRIVACY:
Guam Family Law Office does not intend to gather or collect information from any visitor or surfer of this website. It has not installed any special tracking mechanism, by which it will learn of who visits this site or such details. Any information provided to Guam Family Law Office on a voluntary basis, such as filling out a form to submit to via Guam Family Law Office in this website, is strictly upon the discretion of the website user. If this information is sent to then Guam Family Law Office must be noted, that Guam Family Law Office will collect, store, record, use, and the like, this information provided by the user for the intended purpose and the implied intended purpose. All information will be handled with much safety, security, and total privacy. 

DISCLAIMER:
Guam Family Law Office presents the information on this web site as a service to the public and as a marketing medium. Guam Family Law Office reserves the right to make changes/improvements at any time without notice, and assumes no liability for damages incurred directly or indirectly as a result of errors, omissions or discrepancies. Guam Family Law Office is not responsible for the content on any URL’s linked from this website. 

LEGAL NOTICE:
All information on this site is for informational purposes only. No information or materials posted on this site are intended to constitute a legal or binding relationship. The information contained herein, the perusal of it, neither establishes nor constitutes a fiduciary relationship with Guam Family Law. All services, agreements for service, and vendor relationships will be executed via a written contract or letter of mutual understanding. 

Guam Family Law Office makes no warrants or claims as to the accuracy of content posted on this website. 

Sending e-mail does not establish a fiduciary relationship of the sender with Guam Family Law Office or any of its associates or partners. The sender of the e-mail has no expectation of privacy, privilege, or confidentiality either in the content of any message sent, or the identity of the sender of any message to any mailbox found on this domain. This also applies to any web property under the ownership of 
Guam Family Law Office. 

Guam Family Law Office takes no responsibility for links or content of other sites. Browsing this site or any site of or any Guam Family Law Office linked site is at the risk of the web surfer or website visitor. 


Third Party Software, Applications, Widgets, and the like
We will not be responsible for sudden errors, non-function, or mistakes on any third party resources used on our website.  For example, an embedded video may stop working due to the source's account becoming inactive. Or, recaptcha may not work due to a code change by the provider. Third party applications and the like are subject to the provider's and source's availability and proper functioning.

If you have any further questions regarding this site or policies please contact Guam Family Law Office, via e-mail, [email protected].  



Refund Policy

When discussing Guam Family Law Office's (GFLO) Refund Policy, it is important to understand how law firms bill their clients.   The process is substantially different from purchasing goods from a regular retail store and receiving refunds for returned items. 

Most clients who retain GFLO are requested to deposit a set amount of money, called a retainer, with GFLO before any legal work is begun. This is an advance payment for services about to be rendered.  GFLO deposits these funds into its trust account.  The amount of the retainer depends on the type of case.  You might view the retained funds as a type of savings account from which GFLO can withdraw money as the legal services are provided and billed.

Generally, GFLO handles two types of matters, consent and contested.  Consent matters are those where all parties agree to sign the necessary legal documents.  For example, you may request that GFLO handle a consent divorce or a consent guardianship.  Usually, for consent matters, GFLO requires all legal fees and costs to be paid in advance.  As the Legal Services Agreement between you and GFLO clearly states, once the GFLO attorney has prepared the documents for a consent matter, the legal fee has been earned and may be transferred from the trust account into the regular GFLO bank account.  None of the legal fee will be refunded even if one party changes his or her mind and refuses to sign the document(s). This is always a possibility with consent matters. For this reason, clients should be very sure that the other party will cooperate before they ask GFLO to prepare the documents. 

In a local Guam consent matter, the only portion of the retainer that may be refunded is that portion to be used for paying the court filing fees, assuming the matter has not been filed with the Court.  However, once the attorney has completed the documents, any other time he spends on the case because of some difficulty that has arisen through no fault of the attorney, such as a spouse refusing to sign documents, is billed at the normal hourly rate of $225.  This includes phone calls, emails, and meetings with the client.  These additional legal fees will be collected from the retained court fees.  Any remaining amount will be refunded to the client.  On the other hand, the client will have to pay GFLO an additional amount for any deficiency. 

An exception to the general rule that GFLO will refund for court fees where a matter has not yet been filed is a 7-Day Residency Divorce.  Since this is an all-in-one payment, there is no reimbursement/refund for any amount of the retainer should the matter not be filed with the court.  HOWEVER, we will fully refund the total retainer should a judge reject a 7-Day Residency Divorce even after the client fully complied with all GFLO instructions on processing the divorce. However, GFLO will not be responsible or liable for the transportation, hotel, car rental costs or any other cost incurred in traveling to and staying on Guam.

In a contested matter, the client also deposits a retainer with GFLO.   On a monthly basis, as the attorney provides legal services for a client, a sum of money representing the cost of those services is transferred from the client's trust account into GFLO's bank account.   Frequently, the retainer is not enough to fund the entire case to trial and the client will have to make additional payments to GFLO to pay for the legal services as the case progresses.  However, there are instances where some money remains in the client's trust fund after all legal services are completed.  In such instances, the remaining balance of the trust account will be refunded to the client.

GFLO certainly wishes to amicably resolve any funding dispute that may arise.  We therefore encourage our clients to ask their questions or communicate their concerns to us as soon as possible.  We in turn will attempt to immediately resolve the matter.  We pride ourselves on the quality of services we provide our clients.  Through open dialogue with our clients, we will strive to continuously improve upon our services.

Please take this information into consideration before retaining an attorney.