Legal fees/court date

california

we have completed everything for our adoption including the state visit and all their requirements.

we have paid around $20k in fees and still owe our adoption attorney around $3k. we are making payments on the rest.

he will not sign over a substitution form so we can proceed in our local court. he was wanting me in pro per since he didn't want to travel up here.

question... can we terminate his services, proceed on our own and get a court date?

we're not here to stiff him for the remainder, we just want to finish this after a year of doing all the requirements and being stopped by the last remaining fees.

thanks!

it seems we didn't understand our rights as adoptive parents.

once all the legal requirements by the state were met, we simply terminate our counsel and get a court date. fees are a separate matter.