Pricing · Published · Kentucky

Flat fees.Published.Honored.

Johnson Legal PLLC publishes concrete flat fees for the matters the firm handles most. You see the published prices before you call. The engagement letter quotes it in writing before any work begins. No hourly billing on the items below.

Schedule a consultation See Cornerstone catalog

KY BAR # 101547·Free 20-minute scoping call.

This is an advertisementDurward Elton Johnson, Esq. is responsible for the content of this site.

JL Direct · Attorney-led work

JL Direct flat fees.

These are the matters Johnson Legal PLLC handles directly under attorney-led custom drafting. Each price reflects the analysis of SCR 3.130(1.5)(a) applied to the specific service. Fees are organized into three tiers by how much attorney work the matter takes — here is what each tier means.

How the three tiers work

Tier 1 · Cornerstone catalog — fixed flat fee, attorney-reviewed, AI-assisted drafting on template-driven Kentucky documents (will, POA, healthcare directive, TOD deed, revocable trust). Delivered through the Bluegrass Cornerstone storefront.
Tier 2 · JL Direct standard — attorney-led custom drafting with a published flat fee. Engagement letter scopes the matter; the firm drafts to your facts.
Tier 3 · JL Direct complex — attorney-supervised drafting plus an in-firm execution session. Used for instruments where signing-ceremony formality and witness/notary coordination materially reduce post-execution challenge risk.

Why these prices? → Honest about the math behind a second-career practice.

Common engagements

LLC formation — $299 base / $449 single-member · $649 multi-member full. (JL Direct · Tier 2)

$299 base: Articles of Organization (KRS 275.025) drafted and filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State; EIN registration with IRS; Kentucky annual-report calendar setup. State filing fees paid separately by the client.

$449 single-member / $649 multi-member full: Everything in base, plus the operating agreement — the same Kentucky LLC operating agreement instrument our Bluegrass Cornerstone catalog publishes ($199 single-member / $399 multi-member, attorney review included), delivered inside the formation engagement with a formation-bundle credit applied. Governance under the Kentucky LLC Act (KRS Chapter 275): capital contributions, distributions, management form, transfer restrictions, member-liability/indemnification, and dissolution mechanics.

Just the operating agreement, on its own? It is a Bluegrass Cornerstone catalog document — $199 single-member / $399 multi-member, attorney review included (see the catalog below). Special allocations, multiple unit classes, or investor structures go beyond the catalog template and are custom JL Direct work, quoted in writing.

KRS Chapter 275 · Kentucky Limited Liability Company Act

Commercial lease drafting and review — $999 baseline / $1,999 complex. (JL Direct · Tier 2)

$999 baseline: Single-tenant commercial lease drafting OR landlord/tenant-side review of counterparty draft (3-5 year term, single property, standard provisions). Includes one negotiation round (one consolidated redline exchange plus one revision); further rounds by written engagement-letter amendment.

$1,999 complex: Multi-tenant build-out, percentage rent, CAM allocation, complex assignment/sublet/right-of-first-refusal, operating expense reconciliation, and multiple amendment cycles.

Commercial leases operate under Kentucky common-law contract principles. Residential leases under the Kentucky URLTA (KRS 383.500-705 in adopting jurisdictions) are separately scoped.

KRS Chapter 383 · Kentucky common-law contract

Uncontested probate — $1,500 baseline / $3,000 complex. (JL Direct · Tier 2)

$1,500 baseline: Simple uncontested probate, single executor, modest estate (under $200K), no real-property transfers, no will contests, no minor heirs.

$3,000 complex: Multi-property estate, multiple beneficiaries, executor coordination across out-of-state assets, and federal estate-tax coordination if the estate exceeds the federal threshold (return preparation quoted separately).

Some estates need no administration at all — Kentucky can transfer a small estate's assets without administration where the surviving-spouse exemption and preferred claims cover the probatable assets (KRS 395.455). We tell you at the free call.

Court filing fees, appraiser fees, surety bond premiums, and publication costs paid separately by the estate.

KRS Chapter 395 · Kentucky probate procedure

Demand letter — $199. (JL Direct · Tier 2)

Single pre-suit demand letter (breach of contract, unpaid invoice, security deposit recovery, tort pre-suit). Commercial and individual claims; consumer-debt-collection engagements are screened separately. Includes legal-claim assessment, statute-of-limitations check, damages quantification, and settlement-frame analysis.

Not included: Filing suit if non-response (separate engagement). Extended negotiation cycles beyond two follow-ups (re-engaged at hourly).

Buy-sell agreement — $599 baseline / $1,299 complex. (JL Direct · Tier 2)

$599 baseline: Simple two-member LLC buy-sell, single triggering event (death OR disability), fixed-price valuation.

$1,299 complex: Multi-member buy-sell, multiple triggering events (death/disability/withdrawal/termination/divorce), valuation formula (book value, multiple-of-EBITDA, or independent appraisal), funding mechanism (life insurance), tag-along/drag-along rights, ROFR.

KRS Chapter 275 · Kentucky LLC contract law

Already have our Cornerstone operating agreement? It includes basic transfer restrictions and a buyout method. The buy-sell agreement is the next step: a binding, funded obligation with closing mechanics — and we reconcile it with your operating agreement as part of the engagement.

Scope: LLC-context only. Corporate shareholder buy-sell under the Kentucky Business Corporation Act (KRS 271B) is priced separately under engagement-letter amendment.

Complex trust — $1,099 all-in. (JL Direct · Tier 3 attorney-supervised)

$799 drafting plus $300 attorney-supervised execution session. Covers irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT), special-needs trust (third-party, or first-party), generation-skipping/dynasty trust, charitable remainder/lead trust, and qualified personal residence trust (QPRT). For first-party special-needs trusts requiring court establishment, the $1,099 covers the drafting; the court petition is a judicial proceeding quoted separately in the engagement letter. Multi-trust packages priced separately.

The vanilla revocable living trust ($699 all-in) is handled through our Bluegrass Cornerstone catalog — see the bottom of this page.

KRS Chapter 386B · Kentucky Uniform Trust Code

Scope: Medicaid-asset-protection-trust matters are scoped against 42 USC 1396p (federal Medicaid look-back) only. Kentucky public-assistance and Medicaid-eligibility framework analysis (KRS Chapter 205) may require engagement-letter amendment.

Bluegrass Cornerstone DBA · Document storefront

Cornerstone catalog — fixed flat fees for template-driven Kentucky documents.

For routine, template-driven Kentucky legal documents, the firm runs a separately-branded storefront — Bluegrass Cornerstone. The catalog handles wills, durable powers of attorney, advance directives, transfer-on-death deeds, revocable living trusts, healthcare powers of attorney, HIPAA authorizations, and Kentucky LLC operating agreements. Sub-market pricing because AI-assisted drafting reduces the time the lawyer spends drafting from blank page on template-driven documents. Same Kentucky lawyer reviews every Cornerstone document before delivery.

Representative catalog prices (all Tier 1 · Cornerstone catalog):

Will — $99 (Cornerstone catalog · Tier 1; KRS 394.040 + 394.225 self-proving)
Revocable living trust — $699 all-in ($399 drafting + $300 execution session) (Cornerstone catalog · Tier 1 with execution session)
LLC operating agreement — $199 single-member / $399 multi-member, attorney review included (Cornerstone catalog · Tier 1; KRS Chapter 275 — the law splits the two as different statutory instruments, KRS 275.015(21))
Transfer-on-death deed — $99 (Cornerstone catalog · Tier 1; Howell v. Herald + KRS 381.040 format)
Durable power of attorney — $79 (Cornerstone catalog · Tier 1; KRS 457.420 statutory short form)
Healthcare power of attorney — $59 (Cornerstone catalog · Tier 1; KRS 311.629)
Living will / advance directive — $69 (Cornerstone catalog · Tier 1; KRS 311.625)

See full Cornerstone catalog at bluegrasscornerstone.com →

What's not included

Costs paid by the client, separately.

Flat fees cover the firm's legal-services work. They do not cover third-party costs that vary by matter: county-clerk recording fees, court filing fees, surety bond premiums, appraiser fees, accountant or tax-preparer fees, publication costs, title-search fees paid to the clerk's office, state entity filing fees (KRS 275.025 and similar), and any required notary fees beyond the in-firm signings. The engagement letter lists the anticipated third-party costs and how they are paid.

Quoted to the matter

Family law and litigation are flat-fee — without a menu price.

Divorce, custody, probate disputes, trust litigation, and will contests run on the same flat-fee architecture as the schedule above — a defined scope, a written number, earned on receipt — but the number is set by the matter, not by a menu. No two disputes are the same size, and one advertised number would overcharge the simple case and understate the hard one. You get the number in writing at the end of the free scoping call, before any engagement begins. In a family matter, everything short of a contested final hearing lives inside the one flat. In litigation, each stage before trial is its own flat, quoted in writing before that stage begins. Either way, a final hearing where witnesses testify is priced separately and begins only on your written yes.

Family law →·Litigation →

One exception

Veterans' benefits appeals aren't flat-fee.

VA work sits outside this schedule because federal law governs when a fee may be charged at all. No attorney or claims agent may charge a veteran for an initial claim, and after the VA's first decision my fee is contingent — so there is no flat price to publish here. Case expenses in a VA matter are separate from the fee and are paid by the client directly to the provider.

How VA fees and deadlines actually work →

How a flat-fee quote works

In writing. Before the work.

Every flat fee is quoted in writing in the engagement letter before the firm starts work. The letter names the matter, the scope covered by the fee, what is excluded, the third-party costs the client pays directly, and the schedule on which the firm will report progress.

You pay when the work is delivered, not before, not after. Under Kentucky Rule 1.5(f), the flat fee is earned on receipt — the firm holds client funds in IOLTA only when an engagement specifies escrow rather than flat fee.

If the matter materially changes scope mid-engagement, the firm proposes a written amendment to the engagement letter rather than billing additional time. Your authorization is required before the expanded scope begins.

AI assists with drafting, research, and summarization on Kentucky matters under KBA Ethics Opinion E-457 (March 15, 2024) and the Rules of Professional Conduct it cites — SCR 3.130 (1.1) (1.4) (1.5)(a) and (b) (1.6) (5.1)(b) and (8.4). You can decline AI use on your matter at any time; that does not change the published flat fee.

Compliance reference: SCR 3.130(7.10), (7.15), (7.20)(3), (1.5)(a) and AAC Regulation 1.

Schedule a consultation

What clients say

Five stars on Google.

“I thought this process was going to be a lot more time consuming and expensive after shopping around for Estate Attorneys, but Attorney Johnson has streamlined this process with very clear steps throughout. His response time was great too, usually within the hour. I would highly recommend his law firm.”

Donna Connery · five-star Google review · August 2026

“I needed help. I’ve been driving back and forth for three months. Just to get my settlement check. I had to call someone who knew how to speak to these Lawyers. Anyway I picked the Johnson firm. I understood what he was saying. Mr. Johnson talked to the Lawyers who kept holding my check. Don’t know what Mr. Johnson said but in one week I received two checks. Now that’s a good lawyer in my book.”

Jimmie Hargis · five-star Google review · July 2026

Every legal matter is different. Each review describes that client's own experience; outcomes depend on the facts and circumstances of each case.

Read our reviews on Google

Book directly

Free 20-minute scoping call.

Schedule a free 20-minute scoping call. We use this call to confirm Johnson Legal PLLC can take your matter and to give you a written flat-fee quote for the work.

Note: Calendly is used for scheduling only and is not a secure channel for client-matter PHI or privileged communication. For privileged client communications, use the secure portal sent in your engagement letter.