Engagement Letter — Arbitration (Nevada)

Sample from a notation template. The matter is simulated. No person named here exists. No lawyer is engaged by this page. It is not legal advice.

Date: When does this engagement begin?

To: Who is Client?

Re: Engagement for legal services, Cruller v. Prine

Dear Who is Client?:

The Firm will represent you on the terms below. Sign and return a copy if you accept.

For this engagement the Firm's client is Who is Client?, a natural person. No member of the client's household is a client of the Firm by virtue of this letter.

The Firm will represent you in the following matter (the "Matter"):

That is the floor, not the ceiling. Work outside the Matter — a new dispute, a separate proceeding, an appeal — requires a separate written engagement or a written amendment to this one signed by both of us. We would rather add scope in a two-line email exchange than have you assume we are already handling something we are not.

Unless separately agreed in writing, this engagement does not include tax, accounting, insurance-coverage, or public-relations advice, and does not extend to any matter unrelated to the Matter described above.

The claims described above are resolved by binding arbitration rather than by a jury, because the recorded declaration of covenants for the parties' street requires the neighbors to arbitrate a dispute of this kind before either of them may try it. The arbitration is administered by the American Arbitration Association, seated in Las Vegas, Nevada, before a single arbitrator, and conducted confidentially.

Three consequences are worth stating plainly before you sign, because they are the ones clients are most often surprised by afterwards.

• No jury, and no public courtroom. One arbitrator decides both what happened and what the law requires of it. The hearing is private and the award is not a public record.

• Discovery is narrower than in court. The arbitrator sets what exchange of documents and testimony is proportionate. Expect less of it than a court action would allow, which cuts both ways: it lowers the cost and it limits what can be extracted from Who is Adverse party?.

• An award is nearly final. A court may enter judgment on the award, and may set one aside only on the narrow statutory grounds. A mistake about the facts, or about the law, is generally not one of them.

The Firm will advise you before any deadline that would waive a right, and will not agree to consolidate, bifurcate, or submit any claim on the papers without telling you first.

Fees for this engagement are set in a separate writing you and the Firm sign — a flat monthly fee, an hourly rate, a contingency, or a combination — and that writing controls the fee. The Firm will not begin work before that writing is signed, so you always know the basis on which you are being charged before anything is billed. Where the fee is contingent on a recovery, the rate is not set by law and is negotiable, and it is written out in its own signed fee agreement.

Fees do not include the administrator's filing fees, the arbitrator's compensation, expert fees, court reporter and transcript costs, or other third-party costs. Those are passed through at cost. The arbitrator's compensation in a matter of this size is the largest of them, and the Firm will give you an estimate before the arbitration is commenced rather than after.

Every invoice carries its own payment instructions. Read them there rather than reusing instructions from an earlier invoice, and verify by telephone — at a number you already know to be genuine — any emailed change to them, including a message that appears to come from the Firm.

Every matter the Firm opens names one person on each side who answers for it — one lawyer here, one person on the client's side. We call each of them the directly responsible individual, or DRI. Other people work on the matter; these two answer for it, so you always know whom to ask where things stand. Neither name changes except in writing.

• The Firm's directly responsible individual is Who is Lawyer dri?, who is principally responsible for this engagement — for the work, for the schedule, and for telling you candidly where the Matter stands.

• The client's directly responsible individual is Who is Client?, the person the Firm takes instructions from and sends advice to.

The Firm treats a conflict for any one of its lawyers as a conflict for the whole firm. Before taking on a new matter we check it against our current and former matters; if that check turns up a conflict we cannot properly take on, we tell you promptly, decline rather than wall it off internally, and return any materials you shared with us.

You do not waive, and the Firm does not request, advance consent for the Firm to appear adverse to you in any litigation, arbitration, or other contested proceeding.

You agree to provide accurate and complete information, to respond to reasonable requests, and to make the decisions the representation needs — which in an arbitration includes the choice of arbitrator and any decision to settle. Those two are yours, not the Firm's. The Firm's advice depends on the information available to it when the advice is given.

The Firm has made no promise, assurance, or guarantee about the outcome of the arbitration, of any negotiation, or of any settlement.

This letter is governed by the law of Which state's law governs this engagement? Nevada by default; choose California or Washington only if the client is located there.. If a dispute arises out of or relates to this engagement or this letter, you and the Firm agree to resolve it by final and binding arbitration before a single arbitrator administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, conducted confidentially and decided under the law of Which state's law governs this engagement? Nevada by default; choose California or Washington only if the client is located there.. The arbitrator applies the same law and may award the same remedies a court could; this paragraph selects the forum for a dispute and does not limit, cap, or waive the Firm's responsibility for its own work.

Your fee-arbitration rights are preserved. Nothing above waives or overrides any non-waivable statutory right you have to arbitration of a fee dispute, including the fee-dispute program of the State Bar of Nevada.

Because this is an agreement about how future disputes are handled, you have the right to consult independent counsel of your own choosing before you agree to it.

You may end this engagement at any time by telling us. The Firm may withdraw as the applicable professional rules permit or require — including for nonpayment, a conflict, or a failure to cooperate — and subject to the rules governing withdrawal from a pending proceeding. Fees and authorized expenses incurred before that point remain due.

Agreed and accepted:

Who is Client?

By: ______________________________ Date: ____________

Neon Law, by Who is Lawyer dri?

By: ______________________________ Date: ____________