What is the name of your state? AL
In February I was referred to a law firm to handle drafting and recording a judgment. We signed a contract for $X per hour and I paid a retainer. When I received the first bill in March, I noticed that I was being charged about $50 per hour more than the contract rate. I immediately called and notified the attorney. He said that he would get it all corrected and I should see the correct amounts on the next bill. When the next bill arrived, the only change was a charge for about $100 related to my notifying them that the rate was incorrect. The hourly bill rate was the same as before. Again I called, the attorney apologized profusely and said he would get it corrected and have a correction sent to me. That was the last billing statement that I received from them. It is now July and I am still trying to get this cleared up. I wrote a letter reiterating the billing errors and got a return call from the attorney saying that he was sorry and that he would get it all straightened out. He says that each time I call. But I have yet to get a correction. They have been billing something to my account (He called the next day after my last call asking them to send me the bill) because I noticed the balance was smaller. He said he had the bill there on his desk (and was reading from it). I asked for a copy and for the bills from the previous three months. For whatever reason, they've decided that it would be very hard to re-generate those bills. Since they've been charging SOMETHING to my account, I asked him to send those statements he has on his desk. He said I probably wouldn't be able to understand those and he would ask the billing department if they could generate something. I think it is strange that they can come up with activities and charges but for some reason they can't share them with the client. Once I notified them of the inflated charges and bogus activities (letters they say they mailed that I never received) they stopped sending the billing statements. I know I'm being played, but would like to know the appropriate course of action to end this. I have written a certified letter asking for the statements and I had already told the attorney that I didn't think that there was anything else I wanted to do on this case, and wanted a refund. I had told him several months ago that I wanted to close the case. Then they came up with the idea that the judgment that they filed back in February was "wrong" and needed to be redone and that the charge for that was $y. Every time I ask for the bills the say that they will send them, but they JUST DON'T. Please let me know what I can do about this to close this out and get the proper refund. Would a letter to the state Bar help? Thanks for ANY INPUT!!
In February I was referred to a law firm to handle drafting and recording a judgment. We signed a contract for $X per hour and I paid a retainer. When I received the first bill in March, I noticed that I was being charged about $50 per hour more than the contract rate. I immediately called and notified the attorney. He said that he would get it all corrected and I should see the correct amounts on the next bill. When the next bill arrived, the only change was a charge for about $100 related to my notifying them that the rate was incorrect. The hourly bill rate was the same as before. Again I called, the attorney apologized profusely and said he would get it corrected and have a correction sent to me. That was the last billing statement that I received from them. It is now July and I am still trying to get this cleared up. I wrote a letter reiterating the billing errors and got a return call from the attorney saying that he was sorry and that he would get it all straightened out. He says that each time I call. But I have yet to get a correction. They have been billing something to my account (He called the next day after my last call asking them to send me the bill) because I noticed the balance was smaller. He said he had the bill there on his desk (and was reading from it). I asked for a copy and for the bills from the previous three months. For whatever reason, they've decided that it would be very hard to re-generate those bills. Since they've been charging SOMETHING to my account, I asked him to send those statements he has on his desk. He said I probably wouldn't be able to understand those and he would ask the billing department if they could generate something. I think it is strange that they can come up with activities and charges but for some reason they can't share them with the client. Once I notified them of the inflated charges and bogus activities (letters they say they mailed that I never received) they stopped sending the billing statements. I know I'm being played, but would like to know the appropriate course of action to end this. I have written a certified letter asking for the statements and I had already told the attorney that I didn't think that there was anything else I wanted to do on this case, and wanted a refund. I had told him several months ago that I wanted to close the case. Then they came up with the idea that the judgment that they filed back in February was "wrong" and needed to be redone and that the charge for that was $y. Every time I ask for the bills the say that they will send them, but they JUST DON'T. Please let me know what I can do about this to close this out and get the proper refund. Would a letter to the state Bar help? Thanks for ANY INPUT!!