Is this ethical?

[cavaor]

I have full custody of my daughter (and have since 8/2003). We are just now getting a child support order calculated based on wages. In March 2005, both attorneys told the KY judge they were in agreement to calculated the support based on wages.  We returned to court in June 2005 to address this issue again as the calculation was not done since the noncustodial parent did not provide their wage information.

Wage proof was ordered in June to be provided by noncustodial within 30 days and calculated with judge asking my attorney to write up the order. I received an email today from my attorney indicating that I needed to pay my bill with her in full in order for the order to be written: "We are this close to wrapping this thing up... I will need you to complete your fee payment prior to doing so."

I had paid a retainer of $1500 in addition to an additional $1200. My outstanding bill (which I received last week) is ~$900.  This is for 2 court appearances and accrued since March. I am in IL and my attorney is in KY.

1. Can my attorney withhold writing the order as the judge asked until the balance is paid?

2. Can my attorney "negotiate" matters unbeknowns to me (such as who claims the child on taxes) after I have already indicated that I only need/want an order for support amount?

[socrateaser]

>1. Can my attorney withhold writing the order as the judge
>asked until the balance is paid?

An attorney has a duty of loyalty and diligence to the client. Here, when your attorney states that she will not write the order without payment of her existing bill, she is violating her duty of loyalty and diligence, because she is not alleging that your actions are causing her to suffer a substantial financial difficulty. The proper action by the attorney would be to notify you that she cannot pay her own bills and that she will have to ask the court to permit her to withdraw from the case, unless you pay. Therefore, the attorney is subject to discipline from the State Bar or other regulating agency for her actions in frustrating the timely conclusion of the case.

However, if you tell her how she is messing up, she will fix her dilemma and the outcome will be no more lawyer for you. So, it's a catch 22. You can simply refuse to pay the bill or slow pay or whatever, and eventually she will either withdraw or she will just stop working. If it's the latter, then you will have her on an ethics violation, but you won't have your judgment, so maybe it would be easier to just pay the bill, because an ethics violation will only get the attorney in trouble -- it won't get you your judgment and it won't get your bill reduced.

The way to get the bill reduced is to complain that the amount billed is unreasonable or incorrectly calculated. This would require a pretty thorough analysis of her bill and I don't have time.

Anyway, those are the parameters, my advice is to try to pay the bill unless you have a specific complaint about the amount of the bill vs. the services actually rendered.
>
>2. Can my attorney "negotiate" matters unbeknowns to me (such
>as who claims the child on taxes) after I have already
>indicated that I only need/want an order for support amount?

You attorney can try to negotiate a reasonable settlement, but she cannot settle it without your consent (usually in writing). This is the case in most jurisdictions, HOWEVER, there are a few that are contrary, and I don't know if IL is one (I know that GA is, because there you must inform your attorney in writing that he/she is not to settle any matter without your express written consent -- otrherwise the attorney can settle with your implied consent, and you're stuck).

I don't have time to research this question, either, so you'll either have to reserach yourself or ask a different attorney in IL.