COVID-19 Updates

As providers of a designated "essential service," we are open and operating at full capacity during the quarantine. Our entire staff is still working full-time.

OFFICE:

For the safety of our staff, our clients, and their families, we are limiting in-person meetings. Though much of our staff are working off-site, they remain available through our main switchboard at (818) 804-5729. We do have at least one employee on-site each business day to insure that we are receiving our mail and items dropped through our mail slot. Since we are rotating on-site staff and enforcing social distancing rules, we are strongly discouraging our clients and potential clients from coming to the office without an appointment.

To accord with the social distancing recommendations, we are currently taking meetings by:

    • telephone;
    • Skype;
    • Google Meet;
    • Zoom; and
    • WhatsApp.

We will accommodate, to the best of our ability, any other conferencing service you prefer.

To schedule a meeting, call our main switchboard at (818) 804-5729 and let the receptionist know your preference for conferencing.

AS WE BEGIN TO REOPEN OUR PHYSICAL LOCATION, in order to reduce the risk of transmission and ensure a healthy environment:

  • No one will be admitted to the office without having made an appointment in advance;
  • In-person appointments will only be made when absolutely necessary and it is in our sole discretion to determine when an in-person meeting is absolutely necessary;
  • No one will be permitted to enter unless they are wearing a mask that covers both their mouth and nose;
  • Only the necessary person or persons will be allowed to enter;
  • No children will be admitted unless they are a party to the case;
  • There will be no waiting in the waiting room. You will be asked to wait outside until your appointment time;
  • Do not come to the office if you have any coughing, fever, or other symptoms of COVID-19.

PAYMENTS:

We definitely understand that these are unusual times in which many of our clients are not working or are faced with some economic uncertainty. To the extent possible, we will try to work with you. Call the switchboard at (818) 804-5729 and ask for Michelle if you need an accommodation. It is our intention to keep our full staff employed and to have no interruption to our workflow, so we ask you to please make your best effort to keep your payments timely. We have the following mechanisms that you may not know about for receiving payments while respecting the social distancing rules:

    • pay by phone with a debit or credit card: Call (818) 804-5729 and ask for Michelle or Claudia;
    • direct deposit cash or check at Chase or Bank of America: Call (818) 804-5729 and ask for Michelle to receive instructions;
    • pay online at https://secure.lawpay.com/pages/berkelawoffices/operating ;
    • drop off payment through the mail slot: do not use this method for cash.

SECURE DOCUMENTS PORTAL:

We do have a secure documents portal for transmitting documents that are of a sensitive nature. The portal is not turned on by default, so you must call the office and request that it be turned on if you want to use it. You will then receive an e-mail asking you to acknowledge your identity. You will receive an e-mail notification everytime a document is uploaded to your secure portal.

We'd like your feedback on whether these accommodations are working or if there is anything we could be doing better. Let us know at info@berkelawoffices.com

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