The lawyer after the lawyer. Every firm with a billboard is fighting to be your first call. We built this practice for the second one: the settlement that needs protecting, the injury case that went quiet, the company the big firm stopped calling back, the estate plan your divorce lawyer never touched, and the money someone took from you that the police report alone will not bring back.
Quick answer: Scheer Legal takes on matters that already had a lawyer, or that fall between lawyers. The situations we see most: protecting money from a personal injury settlement, switching injury lawyers in the middle of a case, taking over as outside general counsel after a large-firm engagement, updating an estate plan after a divorce, and pursuing civil claims against someone who defrauded a business or a family. One attorney you can reach directly, flat fees for defined work, English and Spanish, an office in Plantation serving Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and the Keys.
Nobody in legal marketing says this out loud: most people need more than one lawyer, often on the same problem. The lawyer who settled your accident case is not the lawyer who should plan what happens to the money. The firm that handled your company's acquisition is rarely the right one for a Tuesday-afternoon question about a vendor contract. The lawyer who got your divorce finalized has moved on to the next divorce, and your ex-spouse is still the beneficiary on your life insurance. The large firms did their job. Now let us do ours, and you will actually know your lawyer's name.
Because the economics of legal advertising reward the first phone call. Sign the client, open the file, move on. Being second means reading someone else's work, inheriting someone else's deadlines, and sometimes untangling a fee arrangement you did not write. Large firms are built for new engagements. A boutique is built for stepping in. That is most of what we do.
The check cleared and the injury firm closed the file. What Florida protects from creditors automatically, what it does not, what to do if you or a family member is on public benefits, and the plan that keeps the money in the family if something happens to you.
Protecting your settlementMonths without a call back. You can change lawyers at any time, the fee does not double, and your deadlines keep running whether you switch or not. Includes the Settlement Reality Check calculator.
Switching personal injury lawyersHalf-finished documents, a partner who stopped calling, invoices that never matched the work. How to get your file back, what a 30-day handover looks like, and what an outside general counsel on a monthly retainer actually does.
General counsel after the big firmThe family lawyer finished the decree. Your former spouse is still named on the trust, the power of attorney, the life insurance, the retirement accounts, and the deed. Florida undoes some of that automatically and leaves the rest to you.
Estate plan after divorceA partner, a contractor, a vendor, an employee, a fake investment. A police report is where it starts, not where it ends. How the criminal case and the civil case run side by side, and what Florida lets you recover.
Business fraud and theft claimsFor injury firms, family lawyers, CPAs and financial advisors: send us the after-work. We do not compete with you, we finish the job, and your client comes back to you for the next one.
For referring professionalsScheer Legal takes matters on full representation. When you hire us, we run the case, the plan or the company's legal work from where it stands to where it needs to be, and you deal with one attorney who knows your file. Limited scope engagements are rare with us, considered case by case, and only where the matter justifies it. We do not take one-hearing or one-deposition assignments as a bargain substitute for having a lawyer on the case, we do not review or sign off on filings drafted by you or by an AI tool, and we do not quote piecemeal. That is not a judgment about anyone's ability. It is how we keep the standard our clients hire us for.
What that looks like in practice: a written engagement with a fixed fee or a written budget, a direct line to Dominic, a plan for the first thirty days, and status updates you do not have to ask for. If your matter needs a lawyer in a field we do not practice, we bring one in and manage them. If it does not need a lawyer at all, we say so on the first call and send you on your way.
Less than you think, and mostly things you already have. The fee agreement you signed with the first lawyer. Any closing statement, settlement papers or final judgment. Whatever the first lawyer mailed you, including the letters you did not fully read. A short, honest timeline of what happened and when. We do the rest: the conflict check, the notice to the prior firm, the file request, and the calendar.
Changing lawyers is common and the rules anticipate it. When a representation ends, the outgoing lawyer has to give you notice, allow time to hire someone else, and hand over the papers and property that belong to you. Most transitions are handled lawyer to lawyer in a few calls and a letter. Where a prior firm has a claim to part of a fee, that is normally resolved between the firms or out of the eventual recovery, not with a second bill to you. You do not owe the prior firm a reason for leaving, and you do not need its permission.
Second-lawyer work is not a practice area. It is a posture, and it shows up everywhere: car and truck accidents, motorcycle and slip and fall cases, medical negligence recoveries that come with long-term care needs, nursing home cases where the family is really having a probate conversation, boating and jet ski injuries, cruise passenger claims (Miami is the cruise capital of the world and those settlements are a steady South Florida stream), aviation accidents, workers' compensation settlements, and wrongful death recoveries with trusts for the children left behind. On the business side: HVAC and trades contractors, aviation companies, marine businesses, healthcare practices, builders, and the general small business that never had a real general counsel. Where the first lawyer practiced in a field we do not, we say so and bring one in. What we do not do is pretend a file is in good shape when it is not.
Yes. A client in Florida may discharge a lawyer at any time, with or without a reason. Your new lawyer files the paperwork with the court and the case continues. Deadlines do not pause while you switch, which is the reason to decide sooner rather than later.
In the typical contingency case, no. The lawyer you leave may have a claim for the reasonable value of the work already done, but that is usually resolved between the two firms out of the one fee, based on who did what. Your written contract with the new lawyer governs what you owe the new lawyer. The switching page explains the process and has a calculator.
No. Most clients tell us anyway, and it helps us understand what went wrong, but you do not owe the prior firm a reason.
Yes. A flat-fee review with a written opinion is one of the most useful things we do. Sometimes the answer is that your current lawyer is doing fine and the silence is normal for that stage of the case, or that your estate plan still works. We will tell you that too.
Not as a rule. Scheer Legal takes matters on full representation. Limited scope engagements are rare, considered case by case, and only where the matter justifies it. We do not make one-hearing or one-deposition appearances as a bargain substitute for having a lawyer on the case, and we do not review or sign off on self-drafted or AI-drafted filings. If you want a lawyer to take the case over and run it, that we do.
We handle estate planning, business and general counsel work, construction, boating and maritime, personal injury and civil fraud matters directly. For fields we do not practice, such as medical negligence at trial or patent work, we evaluate the file, tell you what it needs, and bring in or refer you to a lawyer who does that work.
Yes. Dominic practices in English and Spanish, and every page in this section has a Spanish version. Meetings, documents and explanations happen in whichever language you think in.
A short consultation, a look at what the last lawyer left you, and a straight answer about whether a second lawyer changes anything.
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