dabuya3440
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? TX
I recently hired an attorney to represent me in a child custody case and signed one contract at our initial meeting. However, it soon became apparent that she was out for money because at our first hearing, a Motion to Disqualify a previous attorney, she jumped at every opportunity to work for the opposing side at my expense and without my consent in front of the judge—it was my ex-husband’s motion and he didn’t notify the attorney general’s office. In the next to last hearing, my ex-husband notified her of the trial date, but failed to notify me. My brother and I got suspicious and our suspicions led him to the court house where he discovered a hearing date had been set. This attorney perjured herself in court by saying that my ex-husband hadn’t notified her too, but the judge didn’t believe her and refused to grant a continuance. She must have gotten wind that I was growing tire of her performance and decided to send me a “New client informational letter” which gave her power of attorney and re-defined how she could bill for her services, i.e., she wanted to be able to work 30 minutes, but charge me any arbitrary amount that she decided was right.
We had one more hearing in which she could have argued that my ex-husband, the non-custodial parent, pay for supervised visitation because he made much more money than I did and because it was the reason she was hired, but she failed to with her reason being that she couldn’t interrupt the judge while he was speaking. Too, even though she knew I had very little resources and that my family was paying my legal bills, she insisted that I should have agreed to pay for the supervised visitations. She also insisted that if she prepared me at all for the hearing that she would have been coaching me to lie. Finally, she stated that she was going to bill me for dictating to a secretary that no-one has seen, talked to or ever known. Of course, I have filed a grievance against this attorney at the recommendation of the client attorney assistance program. I also didn’t sign this second informational letter, which read exactly like a replacement contract, she sent that gave her broad discretionary powers to charge me as she wished or give her power of attorney. Please remember that my first contract just stated how much she charged per hour—a pretty basic contract.
It took the CAAP (Client attorney assistance program) two months just to get this attorney to send a final bill and on it, she is behaving as if I signed another contract, the so called information letter, which gave her the ability to charge me arbitrary fees instead of the actual amount of time worked. She also has invalid items on her invoice, and I can prove it with court documentation. Because this attorney has grossly overcharged for her services, worked 30 minutes and charged 3.5 hours or worked 3 hours and charged 7.5 hours, and billed for services not rendered, the mysterious invisible secretary, my family has already paid her $3000.00 has decided to withhold paying these additional fees she claims that we owe pending the outcome of the grievance. However, I fear that she is going to attempt to sue me for these fees and need to know what steps I should take to protect myself. For example, will I be sued in small claims court, the amount is under $2700.00, or taken to litigations? What is the litigation process and how do I ensure my rights are protected? I know that she has no contract which grants her these powers unless she has forged my signature on documents. However, I am very concerned because I feel that is attorney is very unscrupulous and will try any dirty trick to get more money out of clients.
I recently hired an attorney to represent me in a child custody case and signed one contract at our initial meeting. However, it soon became apparent that she was out for money because at our first hearing, a Motion to Disqualify a previous attorney, she jumped at every opportunity to work for the opposing side at my expense and without my consent in front of the judge—it was my ex-husband’s motion and he didn’t notify the attorney general’s office. In the next to last hearing, my ex-husband notified her of the trial date, but failed to notify me. My brother and I got suspicious and our suspicions led him to the court house where he discovered a hearing date had been set. This attorney perjured herself in court by saying that my ex-husband hadn’t notified her too, but the judge didn’t believe her and refused to grant a continuance. She must have gotten wind that I was growing tire of her performance and decided to send me a “New client informational letter” which gave her power of attorney and re-defined how she could bill for her services, i.e., she wanted to be able to work 30 minutes, but charge me any arbitrary amount that she decided was right.
We had one more hearing in which she could have argued that my ex-husband, the non-custodial parent, pay for supervised visitation because he made much more money than I did and because it was the reason she was hired, but she failed to with her reason being that she couldn’t interrupt the judge while he was speaking. Too, even though she knew I had very little resources and that my family was paying my legal bills, she insisted that I should have agreed to pay for the supervised visitations. She also insisted that if she prepared me at all for the hearing that she would have been coaching me to lie. Finally, she stated that she was going to bill me for dictating to a secretary that no-one has seen, talked to or ever known. Of course, I have filed a grievance against this attorney at the recommendation of the client attorney assistance program. I also didn’t sign this second informational letter, which read exactly like a replacement contract, she sent that gave her broad discretionary powers to charge me as she wished or give her power of attorney. Please remember that my first contract just stated how much she charged per hour—a pretty basic contract.
It took the CAAP (Client attorney assistance program) two months just to get this attorney to send a final bill and on it, she is behaving as if I signed another contract, the so called information letter, which gave her the ability to charge me arbitrary fees instead of the actual amount of time worked. She also has invalid items on her invoice, and I can prove it with court documentation. Because this attorney has grossly overcharged for her services, worked 30 minutes and charged 3.5 hours or worked 3 hours and charged 7.5 hours, and billed for services not rendered, the mysterious invisible secretary, my family has already paid her $3000.00 has decided to withhold paying these additional fees she claims that we owe pending the outcome of the grievance. However, I fear that she is going to attempt to sue me for these fees and need to know what steps I should take to protect myself. For example, will I be sued in small claims court, the amount is under $2700.00, or taken to litigations? What is the litigation process and how do I ensure my rights are protected? I know that she has no contract which grants her these powers unless she has forged my signature on documents. However, I am very concerned because I feel that is attorney is very unscrupulous and will try any dirty trick to get more money out of clients.