Contingent Fee on Receiving Child Support

[TxSunshine40]

What is the name of your state? Texas

My question is: Can a lawyer charge a contingent fee when settling on future child support for children? My lawyer never advised me on his fees prior to taking his fees out of my settlement for future child support. The only conversation that was talked about on fees, was that my lawyer would take his fees out of the estate we were filing against for back and future child support. My ex inherited a huge estate, but had skipped town 5 years prior to his father passing. (EX was wanted by police for Felony) We tried to file on his part of the estate for back and future child support. We started out trying to get a Trust Fund set up for the kids. But my EX turned himself in and fought me in court. During litigations my attorney told me that I needed to go ahead and give him $5,000.00 and that when he got his fees from the estate or Trust, that he would give me back the $5,000.00. NOTHING ELSE WAS EVER SAID ABOUT ATTORNEYS FEES. NO PAPER WAS SIGNED OR FEES DISCUSSED. In the end, I did recieve my back child support. We agreed on an amout for future child support and my ex terminated his rights to his 2 children. His lawyers sent the future child support check to my lawyer. He then took out a contigent Fee, plus said that the $5,000.00 that I had given him was a Retainer Fee (which was not told to me) so he took that out, then took a % off the top of my whole amount of back and future support.
When it was all said and done and added, my lawyer actually RECEIVED all but $2,000.00 of what my agreement was for future child support for my children.
I never was told what he fees would be......nothing was signed. Can he just take what he wants and run? We ended up loosing the case to boot. The trust didn't get set up for the children. Please help me Understand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To make it all worse, the Lawyer is my cousin.

 

[shortbus]

Your cousin screwed you.

 

[Dandy Don]

Your mistake was in not signing a fee agreement with him when you first hired him, and his mistake was in not offering you an agreement to sign explaing the retainer situation, etc.

This is grossly unethical behavior and you need to file a complaint against him with the Texas State Bar Association.

What is this lawyer's specialty, or what type of lawyer is he? A probate attorney, general practitioner, divorce attorney, what?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

 

[Karankawan]

Your mistake was in not signing a fee agreement with him when you first hired him, and his mistake was in not offering you an agreement to sign explaing the retainer situation, etc.

This is grossly unethical behavior and you need to file a complaint against him with the Texas State Bar Association.

What is this lawyer's specialty, or what type of lawyer is he? A probate attorney, general practitioner, divorce attorney, what?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

I agree with Dandy Don in Oklahoma is OK...

The fact is most contingent fee'd agreements contain exclupatory wording for future earning and in essense actually give those lawyers continued fees for the future of you gaining valued and needed income. Your recourse would be to file a complaint against your cousin and his firm as to have the exclupatory language removed because he never informed you of any future earnings through the agreement. Most lawyers only see $$$$$'s when clients/victims walk through the door...

Also, file a complaint with the BBB in your area...you can do that all online by going to http://www.bbb.org then search for your area to complain. Remember to complain against the firm and the lawyer...

 

[Dandy Don]

Also, please clarify:

Did you pay him $5,000 retainer upfront, before he did work or after he began working, and did he also take this retainer out when the check came in? If so, then that is double billing which is completely illegal.

What was the total amount of the child support check and how much in total did he take out?

 

[TxSunshine40]

Reply to Dandy Don's question

Texas

To my knowledge, my lawyer (cousin) is an all type lawyer. He does probate, he does divorce's and he represents clients in trouble with the law.
He did not ask me for the $5,000.00 up front. After representing me for about two months, I had recieved part of my BACK child support, with his help. He then approached me and said that it would take longer than we expected, because my EX did re-appear out of the wood works. So, he told me that I needed to give him $5,000.00, and that when everything was said and done, he would get his fees out of the Estate or children's fund and that he would re-imburse me the $5,000.00, that I thought was just a down payment for his services. He never once mentioned to me about a retainer fee. NEVER!
To save on the attnys fees, I would drive to my Uncle's house, get the papers needed to file at the Courthouse, drive 30+ miles and pay all the filing fees. Saving my attny time and milage. Now if I knew that he was going to take a Contingent fee, do you really think that I would have done all that for nothing?
I had no idea what he was going to charge. We never discussed that, past him getting his from the Estate that we were filing against. What he did with the $5,000.00.....he took my total amount of back and future child support that I had recieved and was suppose to receive....added it all up, then he subtracted the $5,000.00 off the top of the whole amount, THEN he took his contingent fee off of that amount. Which made him gain more money doing it that way, instead of taking the contingent percentage off the very top of the whole amount, then subtracting the $5,000.00 I had already paid him.
When I read FILING A GRIEVANCE AGAINST A LAWYER, it states In TEXAS, that a client cannot file a grievance for fees. There are other routes, but not that one. Is there something I don't know that would make my case different?
Thank you so much for your concern and help. Any imput will be much appreciated.

 

[TxSunshine40]

Update on TxSunshine40

TEXAS !!!!!!!!!

I have been corrosponding with my Lawyer via e-mail. He just keeps telling me that he has added up his time that he had spent on my case and that he would mail it to me, TWO WEEKS AGO, I'm still waiting. I ended up calling a LegalLine that the Dallas Bar Assoc. offers two days a month.....A Lawyer is looked down upon by the State Bar of Texas for charging a Contingent Fee on a Family Law matter. It is not against Tx Legal Ethics, but should only be done if it was the LAST resort. BUT, when I told them that he had not informed me of his charges and that he did not have me sign NO kind of agreement form, they said that he HAD gone against the Tx Legal Ethics, that ALL contingent fees MUST be in writing, and that I needed to file a Greivance against him with the State Bar of Texas. SO.......I, again, e-mailed my Lawyer and told him of my findings, and informed him that he could still send me all the time that he said he worked on my case, but, that, the papers I have shows he charged a contingent fee.......not an hourly fee. Plus, I have an e-mail from him prior that he had stated that HE LOOKED UP TO SEE IF HE COULD CHARGE A CONTINGENT FEE BEFORE HE TOOK MY CASE. This will show that he only had intentions of doing just that, which the State Bar of Tx will not like.............This was child support for children!!!!
Hopefully it will be resolve so we both can live with the amount. I have offered him the split the $30,000.00 he took, but he is still bucking me.
Well, see. I'm just a farm girl from Texas, we don't give up to easily!