Sep 25, 2012 · You should likely, although it depends on the total amount of fees, costs and expenses, be entitled to at least a portion of the $2,000.00. If the attorney has not done much, then the fee amount should be relatively low. If the attorney does not pay you what you are legally entitled to, then you can sue for all or a portion of the $2,000.00.
May 05, 2014 · James Christianson says: May 25, 2014 at 2:46 pm. That’s why you create a paper trail and NEVER only talk to your attorney over the phone. You should review the Rules of Professional Conduct, file a bar complaint and sue him for malpractice. And that is why you never hire an attorney in the first place. no name says:
Nov 12, 2015 · Look for an attorney who is experienced in handling attorney's fees disputes. Make copies of any documents related to the fee dispute to take with you to the hearing. You also might want to write notes for yourself regarding the items in your bill you dispute and your reasons for disputing them, so you can present your case in an organized fashion.
Aug 06, 2015 · You can ask the lawyer for your money back. You can demand an accounting. You can sue the lawyer. You can do nothing. You neglected to say why your lawyer refuses to go to court--seems like you left out some information that might shed more light on the matter. NOT LEGAL ADVICE, NO ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE ATTACHES, FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
If an attorney manages to liase many or all all your issues, then you have already lost, especially if they have told you not to talk to the spouse and they have served their purpose by fait accompli. If it comes down to money, you have lost, that is the level of basic understanding marriage has become for males.
Like federal scrip, you can create debt by articulating an argument on paper. That is what statutory law is, the creation of debt. On average if the paperwork is not a valid contract it is simply at best a billable script called attorney ‘work product’. know the difference, an attorney is a processor of statutory law.
The gal did not investigate any of the leads I gave him. The magistrate had a stay for seven months. And the clerk of courts refused to send out the subpoenas. The clerk of courts told my attorney’s staff they were to short of staff to fax the subpoenas over my attorney’s office the day before the trial.
Look for an attorney who is experienced in handling attorney's fees disputes. Make copies of any documents related to the fee dispute to take with you to the hearing.
1. Use standard business format. Your word processing application typically will have a template you can use for writing business letters. Include your name and address as well as the attorney's name, firm name, and address where you're sending the letter.
If your attorney agrees to your compromise, make sure you receive a new bill with the correct amount before you send payment.
I am sorry this is happening to you. I hear your frustration. Always best to know your rights and responsibilities in writing. Talk is cheap.
You can ask the lawyer for your money back. You can demand an accounting. You can sue the lawyer. You can do nothing...
One of the best things that you can do if you feel that your attorney is not doing a good job is to get another law firm to look at your situation. These second opinions do not have to cost very much as it will probably only last an hour or two.
If your attorney is not cooperating, you can go to the courthouse to see copies of all documents that have been filed relating to your case. Lastly, you may have to sue your former attorney in order to get your case file back.
If you receive a bill that looks like the one above, you should demand an itemized accounting of all the time that your attorney spent on your case. Where exactly did those 50 hours go? For example, if your attorney claims that he wrote a letter to opposing counsel for 4 hours, and the letter turned out to be 2 paragraphs long, you may want to seriously question your attorney's time management.
The rules of legal ethics in most states require attorneys to be honest and to be able to do their job at a certain level of competence. If you feel that your legal representative has lied or misled you, or is performing their duties at a level below that of a competent attorney, you may want to file a lawsuit.
If, after many attempts to communicate with your attorney are met with silence, write your lawyer a firm letter asking why they are not responding to you. You should not threaten legal malpractice claims in your letter.
If everything has failed and you still cannot get your attorney to respond to you in a timely fashion, you may have to fire your lawyer and find a new one.
Consider Mediation . One common method that many people are turning to instead of legal malpractice claims is mediation. Mediation is something both you and your lawyer may benefit from, and could even lead to a better attorney-client relationship.
If you lost money because of the way your lawyer handled your case, consider suing for malpractice. Know, however, that it is not an easy task. You must prove two things:
If that doesn't work, as a last resort you may need to sue your lawyer in small claims court, asking the court for money to compensate you for what you've spent on redoing work in the file or trying to get the file.
Every state has an agency responsible for licensing and disciplining lawyers. In most states, it's the bar association; in others, the state supreme court. The agency is most likely to take action if your lawyer has failed to pay you money that you won in a settlement or lawsuit, made some egregious error such as failing to show up in court, didn't do legal work you paid for, committed a crime, or has a drug or alcohol abuse problem.
A common defense raised by attorneys sued for malpractice is that the client waited too long to sue. And because this area of the law can be surprisingly complicated and confusing, there's often plenty of room for argument. Legal malpractice cases are expensive to pursue, so do some investigating before you dive in.
If the lawyer is unresponsive and the matter involves a lawsuit, go to the courthouse and look at your case file, which contains all the papers that have actually been filed with the court. If you've hired a new lawyer, ask her for help in getting your file. Also, ask your state bar association for assistance.
If you can't find out what has (and has not) been done, you need to get hold of your file. You can read it in your lawyer's office or ask your lawyer to send you copies of everything -- all correspondence and everything filed with the court or recorded with a government agency.
A lawyer who doesn't return phone calls or communicate with you for an extended period of time may be guilty of abandoning you -- a violation of attorneys' ethical obligations. But that's for a bar association to determine (if you register a complaint), and it won't do you much good in the short term.
It might be a good idea to hire a private investigator and/ or a forensic accountant to look for anomalies in your spouse’s declarations and financial paperwork.
If you discover that your spouse hid assets during your divorce, your legal options may depend on which state you live in. If you live in a Community Property State (Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, and possibly Alaska) you can file a motion with the court where your divorce was finalized ...
It is more difficult to reopen a divorce case if you did not divorce in a Community Property State, but that doesn’t mean you are out of options. You can always sue your spouse for monetary damages in civil court.
Judges have a lot of leeway when it comes to determining a punishment for spouses who hide assets. It may be that if you can compellingly prove that your spouse hid assets, the judge will simply order your spouse to give your half of the value of those assets to you.
This is what you would have gotten if the assets had been known during the time of the divorce. Of course, some judges like to add a little sting to their rulings against shady spouses. A judge can make your spouse hand over the entire value of the hidden assets to you as a punishment, such as what happened in the case of ...
In the most serious cases, a spouse can even be arrested for hiding assets, though this is usually a last-resort scenario when an ex-spouse still refuses to pay up even after it’s been proven that he hid assets. If you can, try to find evidence of hidden assets during your divorce, but even if you find out that your ex lied to you years after ...