About Duff Chadwick & Associates

Lawyers Are "Teachers"

First, we believe lawyers should be teachers. If you don’t understand the law, and how it applies to your case, all of our knowledge is of little use to you. Other law firms make you feel unintelligent because you don’t understand the process. At Duff, Chadwick & Associates, we believe that if you don’t understand the area of law that affects your case, we haven’t done our job as teachers.

Understand Your Options

Second, we believe that you should understand all of your options before making a decision. For example, if you sit down at a restaurant, and the server tells you the day’s specials, wouldn’t you also want to see the entire menu? In addition to what’s being offered, you would also want to know about the other options available. At Duff, Chadwick & Associates, we explain all of your options, even the options you might not have known about. Sometimes going to court—called “litigation”—is the best option. Sometimes mediation (a fair process for resolving disputes in a way that satisfies both parties) is better than litigation, sometimes it is not. Sometimes we can resolve issues for clients with a letter. Doing nothing is always an option (but it can often make the problem bigger). When you know all of your options, you can be satisfied that you chose the right one.

Your Team

Third, we take the team approach to meeting your legal needs, and the most important person on our team is YOU! The legal process shouldn’t be a mystery; we want you to understand the process, and make sure that you are helping us to resolve your case to get the result you want. We value your input into your case. You set the goal for us, by defining what “success” means in your case. Many lawyers at other firms prefer to manage each case themselves, and let their clients know what happened. At Duff, Chadwick & Associates, we give you the tools you need to take control of your case.

Top-Notch Lawyers

Fourth, we believe that, to make this all work, we have to be top-notch lawyers in our practice area. Our lawyers take 30 to 50 hours of continuing legal education each year to maintain their up-to-date knowledge of the law. Did you know that in Michigan, there is no requirement for lawyers to earn continuing education credits to maintain their law licenses? While other lawyers learn on the job, the lawyers at Duff, Chadwick & Associates know the law before going to court and before discussing your case. We love to answer your questions, because it’s what we train for. We have found that our up-to-date knowledge of the law gives our clients an edge when we get to court, when we enter negotiations, and sometimes keeps our clients out of court.

Anticipate Problems and Avoid Them

Finally, we believe it is easier to avoid a problem than to fix a problem. Imagine a person signs a will and leaves one child out of the will. In fact, the will doesn’t mention the child at all. Years later, that child will have a legal claim against the person’s estate, and the results could be expensive and heart-rending. Because the lawyer left out an important part of the will, this problem—that could have been avoided—must now be fixed. Whether we are preparing wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents; whether we are drafting an order or judgment for the court; whether we are writing a contract or a landlord-tenant agreement; we believe that lawyers must anticipate problems that could go wrong with the specific wording of the documents. This is hard work that lawyers at other law firms too frequently avoid. When details are left out, or are unclear, or are simply worded incorrectly, the result is a much larger problem, and more expensive than the relatively low cost of a properly drafted document. We use our team (including you) to cut down on mistakes, to make sure that foreseeable problems are minimized or avoided, and to give you the peace of mind that your estate planning documents and other documents will accomplish what you wanted them to accomplish.

We are privileged to provide the best representation to Ionia County’s residents, Montcalm County’s residents, Eaton County’s residents, and the residents of neighboring counties. Contact us today by email or by phone to meet with our team.