Our Philosophy at Vilar Law

Many people reading this article may never have dealt with Vilar Law before, while others have been our clients in the past – or maybe are even current clients. Hopefully this will give a slight introduction, or even a re-introduction to anyone visiting our website.

Vilar Law is a Family Law firm headed by family law attorney Patrick Vilar. Patrick began practicing family law over 24 years ago, in Miami, Florida, after graduating from the University of Toledo, in Ohio (go Golden Rockets!).

Over those 24 years, Patrick has shaped his law firm to follow a set of beliefs and principals that he feels offers the best legal services to his clients, while charging reasonable rates. Patrick wants to treat his client’s with respect and compassion and is always conscious of how costly legal services can be to a client already going through a difficult time.

Patrick especially wanted to do this after noticing how often clients would complain that other attorneys were constantly trying to “nickel and dime” them. This included clients finding charges for the most minute actions or services offered by these other attorneys.

That is not a good way to instill confidence or build a relationship with one’s attorney.

The fact is that family law, as opposed to other areas of legal practice, tends to be incredibly personal. There is so much being laid out on the line for clients that it requires a compassionate and caring attorney (not just one that can file some paperwork). That is why Patrick understands the importance of a client having access to his or her attorney. Patrick will return a client’s phone calls and e-mails in a timely fashion.

Patrick wanted to make sure that Vilar Law would stand apart from other firms, and even built it into the structure of his business model.

Fundamentally, Patrick saw that if he, and his firm, were to provide service that was truly satisfying that those clients would do Vilar Law’s advertising for him. While no business can deny the power of “word of mouth”, the very nature of family law necessitated that Vilar Law be built around that concept.

Vilar Law’s best form of advertisement is past clients that are satisfied with Vilar Law’s services, the fees charged for those services and will therefore refer their relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. to Vilar Law.

Here are a few practical efforts that the Vilar Law team makes to minimize a client’s costs, while still maintaining a high level of service:

1. Promoting communication between the client and the attorney by not charging for short phone calls. Patrick knows how important it is for a client to talk to their attorney, even for a brief conversation, and the last thing he wants to do was make client’s feel like that was unwelcomed. He also wants to avoid having a client avoid communication with him because they want to minimize the attorney’s fees being billed.
2. Also in incentivizing good communication between Vilar Law and clients, there’s no charge for quick emails received or sent, or for faxes or copying.
3. As opposed to other solo law firms, Vilar Law is a team, which means that the cost incurred while work is being done will not necessarily be billed by an attorney. Patrick’s associate attorney, Mark R. Wegmann has been with the firm for over five (5) years and has been practicing law for over eight (8) years. Patrick, together with his associate attorney and two paralegals, approaches each case as a team in an effort to get optimal results in a cost-efficient way.

In other words, all the team members at Vilar Law are mindful of how much legal services will end up costing their client. Something that most attorneys view as the cost of “needing to get something done.”

It’s with that in mind that Vilar Law knows that trust and confidence is the key to not only helping their clients, but ensuring its own future success.

Article updated October 23, 2020.