Attorneys
Balestrini, Barnes,
Jaber & Wood, PLLC
Attorneys
Balestrini, Barnes,
Jaber & Wood, PLLC
What It Costs
A Memphis City Court traffic ticket starts at $200. A basic misdemeanor criminal defense starts at $500. An uncontested divorce with no property and no children is a $700 flat fee, and every uncontested divorce can be started for $500 down with payment plans on the balance. Most firms will not put a number on a website. Here is ours.
| Matter | Starting fee | Full schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic ticket, Memphis City Court Division 1 or 2, or General Sessions Division 14 | $200 | Fees by court |
| Criminal defense, basic misdemeanor | $500 | What it costs |
| Uncontested divorce, no property and no children | $700 | Divorce fees |
Those are starting figures, not estimates. A ticket in Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Fayette County or Tipton County is $500. A first degree murder jury trial starts at $30,000. Everything else falls between, and the consultation that tells you where is free.
If the retainer is the obstacle, BBJW LAW accepts Klarna, Apple Pay, Google Pay and all major credit and debit cards. That matters most when the filing cannot wait. An emergency custody motion can be heard within days, and Klarna pays the firm in full immediately, so the petition goes in now and you repay Klarna on a schedule you agreed to first. If you need to start today and don’t have the money, read this →
Who We Are
In 2025 Sam Jaber finalized more than 100 divorces, the firm resolved over 1,000 traffic citations, and Mitch Wood and Jason Balestrini handled hundreds of criminal cases between them. The attorneys here have more than 60 years of combined practice. Balestrini, Barnes, Jaber & Wood, PLLC handles divorce and custody, criminal defense, juvenile court, and traffic tickets.
That volume means very little happens in a Memphis courtroom that somebody here has not already watched play out. We have seen the fact patterns, the personalities, and the procedural problems that turn a simple case into a long one. Whether you are in a contested divorce, facing charges, or just trying to get a speeding ticket handled without a day off work, you will get a straight read on what your situation actually supports.
Our office is located in Minglewood Plaza on Madison Avenue in the heart of Midtown Memphis. We make ourselves accessible and approachable, whether you are dealing with a serious legal issue or something more routine.
What We Do
Attorney Sam Jaber has practiced divorce and family law in Memphis for over a decade. In 2025 alone he finalized more than 100 divorces. That volume gives him a practical read on how these cases actually go rather than a theoretical one.
On contested matters he is honest with clients from the first meeting. He tells them the truth and not what they want to hear. He handles uncontested and contested divorce, alimony, child support, and property division, along with divorces where the spouse cannot be found, enforcement when a parenting plan is ignored, and modifications after the fact. Uncontested divorces are flat fee. If you want the number before you call, our Tennessee child support calculator runs the state’s own worksheet.
Custody runs on its own track. The firm’s Memphis child custody hub covers twenty-two situations, each with its own page: modification, enforcement, relocation, a child’s preference, father’s rights, mother’s rights, grandparent custody, and emergency custody. Which court hears it depends on whether the parents were married, and that decides who handles it.
Attorney Jason Balestrini has practiced at 201, the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center, since 2012 and handles more volume there than anyone else at the firm. Orders of protection are one of his most practiced areas and he appears in that courtroom weekly, on both sides, representing petitioners seeking protection and respondents fighting accusations that are false or exaggerated, and appeals from those orders, where ten days is the whole window.
Attorney Mitch Wood is capital-certified by the Tennessee Supreme Court, approved to handle death penalty cases, a designation held by very few attorneys in the state. He tries cases in Shelby County Criminal Court at close to a monthly clip. In 2023 alone he won three not guilty verdicts on first-degree murder charges.
DUI is its own practice. Attorneys here are NHTSA certified, the same training police receive to administer field sobriety tests, which is how you know when a test was administered wrong.
Federal charges are a different system. Attorney Patrick Barnes is admitted to the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and serves on the CJA panel, appointed by the federal court itself to defend those who cannot afford counsel. No parole, sentencing driven by the guidelines, and a presentence investigation that shapes the outcome before anyone reaches a hearing.
Between them the firm handles the charges that fill a Shelby County docket, including drug charges, gun charges, DUI, domestic assault, theft, robbery, and homicide, along with the procedural fights that come with them, from bail hearings and warrants to probation violations and criminal appeals.
More than 60 years of combined trial experience across the firm, and the Memphis criminal defense hub has a page for every charge that fills a Shelby County docket.
Nothing else in the courthouse carries these stakes. Shelby County Juvenile Court decides whether a child stays with a parent, and DCS moves fast enough that the first hearing can come within days of a petition being filed.
Attorney William Young handles dependency and neglect and dependency and neglect appeals, DCS investigations, emergency custody, delinquency, and termination of parental rights. He represents parents defending against the State and family members filing to protect a child, and handles father’s rights and mother’s rights cases on both sides, including custody for unmarried fathers, who have no enforceable rights until an order is entered. When one parent makes a decision the other did not agree to, a restraining order stops it while the real case gets filed, and when the worry is drinking or a parent believes the child is unsafe with the other parent, the answer is a filing rather than withholding. The standard for removing a child is higher than most people expect. He has used the judicial review process under TCA § 37-1-107 to get cases redocketed that other attorneys had told their clients were over, and handles cases where Eli’s Law creates a presumption before the case starts. He also takes matters filed outside Shelby County, in Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett, and Fayette and Tipton Counties, including orders of protection in both.
Most people pay the ticket because it is the fastest way to make it go away. Paying it is a guilty plea, and the points land on your record and then on your insurance. Attorney Mitch Wood resolves more than 1,000 traffic citations a year at 201 Poplar, in Memphis City Court and Shelby County General Sessions. In most cases you will not have to appear at all.
Take a picture of the front of the citation and upload it from your phone. You get a call back with the fee for your court, usually the same business day.
Outside the county line it is the same work in smaller rooms. Bartlett, Germantown, which sits in the evening, Collierville, with a docket that rotates, Piperton and Ripley on the highways north and east, and Fayette County. What it costs, by court →
CDL citations work differently, and this is Mitch’s. Federal regulations prohibit masking a commercial conviction, so there is no diversion and no quiet dismissal. Every one of these has to be tried to get it dismissed, and very few attorneys in Memphis will try one. CDL fees, by court →
Car accidents, truck collisions, and rideshare claims. Most personal injury work is contingency, meaning no fee unless there is a recovery. Call before you talk to an insurance adjuster, because the first offer gets made before anyone knows what the case is actually worth. What to do after an accident →
Claims against the State of Tennessee are their own category. Sovereign immunity means the State cannot be sued in circuit court at all, so those claims go to the Tennessee Claims Commission instead, under a narrow list of categories, a mandatory notice step before anything can be filed, two separate deadlines, and a statutory cap on damages. Attorney William Young handles Claims Commission matters in the Western Division.
Payment plans are available on most matters. The firm also accepts financing through Klarna, which pays the firm in full at approval rather than in installments, so the work begins the same day instead of after the second payment clears.
Our Approach
Most firms will not put a number on a website. Ours are on the page: flat fees for uncontested divorce, a published range for CDL citations, and a starting figure for criminal defense. You will know roughly where you stand before you call.
Ask any attorney when they last tried a serious case to a jury and won. A lot of firms settle everything and market the rest. More than 60 years of combined trial experience across this firm, and Shelby County jury trials run a week apiece.
If your facts do not support what you want, you will hear that in the first conversation rather than after a retainer clears. Sometimes the honest answer is that a case should not be brought, and that answer is free.
The Reality
The rule comes out of construction, where it is known as the project triangle: good, fast, cheap, pick two. It holds in legal work for the same reason it holds on a job site. If you want it done fast and right, it won't be cheap. If you want it cheap and fast, it likely won't be done well.
We focus on doing things the right way. That takes time and attention, but it's what produces results. When you hire Balestrini, Barnes, Jaber & Wood, PLLC, you're investing in quality, consistency, and outcomes, not shortcuts.
Client Reviews
★★★★★
Balestrini, Barnes, Jaber & Wood holds a 4.9-star rating across more than 950 Google reviews. Three of them, in full:
Free consultation. No commitment. We'll tell you exactly where you stand.