Lawyer problems....

[dipper]

Soc,

My dh went to court on January 25.  The lawyer he had was very unprepared.  She came 1 1/2 hours late.  When questioning bm, bm would lie, lawyer had evidence to that effect in her possession, but didnt point this out.  She had told me that I would only be called in to discuss a certain situation, but did not want me to bring this up otherwise.......when I was called in she did not bring this up - then when bm's lawyer questioned me, I was accused of arguing with bm over money -when the argument had been over an incident between our children......but, I could not say this as I had not been told to.  The incident had infact been brought up earlier.  She was unable to obtain legal documentation and teacher verifications because she did not work on the case until about four days before trial....

On February 11, dh went to get a copy of his order as he hadnt received one.  He was told it had never been filed.  Called lawyer - it had been received at her office that week.  She still has not reviewed this with dh.  After dh wrote a letter to her last week, she called.  Knowing he would not be home until after business hours, I requested to be given the info to pass along and then we could let her know if he was okay with said order.........................her assistant thought it may be better if lawyer called later that night from her home.  She never did call all week......so, I called again and requested it be mailed.  This has not happened either.

Soc, my dh wants to fire this lady as she charges for every phone call, but we are not getting anything accomplished.  This order has been in her possession for weeks - her own assistant told me last Friday that it was in a stack on her desk.......

As she represented dh in court, can he fire her and go directly through bm's lawyer to sort out the order?


Is there any way to fight these charges since she was so slack in her representation or do we right this off to a costly learning experience?

[socrateaser]

>As she represented dh in court, can he fire her and go
>directly through bm's lawyer to sort out the order?

Yes, but depending upon the jurisdiction, if you're not paid in full, you may not be able to obtain your case file from the attorney. Different states have different rules on this.

>Is there any way to fight these charges since she was so slack
>in her representation or do we right this off to a costly
>learning experience?

Your rights are a combination of the State ethics rules and your retainer contract. Most States have a process to redress both unreasonable fees and ethics violations, but, I don't have near enough info to know exactly what these may be in your circumstances.