Court case dismissed for wrongly accused of owning property-HUGE lawyer fees

[georgia_peach]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? GA

My husband was served papers to appear in court for "failure to clean up property" that claimed he was the owner of. For various reasons the case was postponed 3 times (which he appeared in court each month) and then dismissed on this last time with the help of his attorney to the tune of $6,500.00 +. My question is, does he have any right to sue the City for wrongfully charging him as owner of the property which he does not own and has never owned? We just want to recoup the cost of the attorney fees as we were told he would take the case for $3,300.00, but now all of a sudden the bill we got was a lot more.

 

[justalayman]

did they just pull his name out of a hat? How did they determine (apparently erroneously) your husband was the owner of the property?


why did the price charged by the attorney increase. especially to nearly double what was agreed upon?

 

[LdiJ]

did they just pull his name out of a hat? How did they determine (apparently erroneously) your husband was the owner of the property?


why did the price charged by the attorney increase. especially to nearly double what was agreed upon?

What do you want to bet that it was the three extra trips to court that racked up the excess legal fees?

OP, you said for "various reasons" it was postponed 3 times. The actual reasons could matter in giving you advice.

 

[georgia_peach]

did they just pull his name out of a hat? How did they determine (apparently erroneously) your husband was the owner of the property? They never were able to confirm the database that was used to obtain his name.


why did the price charged by the attorney increase. especially to nearly double what was agreed upon?

The continuance of the case and the amount of phone calls the attorney had to make getting the city to answer some of his questions.

 

[georgia_peach]

What do you want to bet that it was the three extra trips to court that racked up the excess legal fees?
Definitely!
OP, you said for "various reasons" it was postponed 3 times. The actual reasons could matter in giving you advice.

The first one was because the judge was late and when she heard what the case involved she said she didn't have time. The other 2 times I cannot even remember what the reason was given, but can find out.

 

[justalayman]

Ok, so now;

how did they determine your husband was the "owner" of the property?

 

[georgia_peach]

Ok, so now;

how did they determine your husband was the "owner" of the property?

The policeman that gave the citation got his name from one of the databases that the city uses, I assume. We could never verify which one.

The property was actually owned by a corporation that sold shares to investment companies, etc and we could track the tax records being paid by the corporation, but not to an individual. It turns out one of the people associated with the investment company had leased an office in the same complex that my husband leased his office 8 years ago. It was one of these temporary suites. My husband did the leg work to come up with this fact and when presented it to his attorney, his attorney doubted that it was the case.

 

[justalayman]

due to the extreme lack of information regarding how they determined your husband might be liable, I cannot even begin to guess as to whether you would have any cause of action to attempt to recoup the attorney's fees. Have you asked your attorney the question?

 

[georgia_peach]

due to the extreme lack of information regarding how they determined your husband might be liable, I cannot even begin to guess as to whether you would have any cause of action to attempt to recoup the attorney's fees. Have you asked your attorney the question?[/QUOTE

This is what he said...but i have a hard time believing what he says especially since he is citing criminal cases and when he tried to do that in court the judge corrected him that he could not do that since it was a "civil case".

Also, at no charge to you, I did some research into whether the City's dismissal constitutes a final termination of the charges against you so that you would have a right of action agains the City. It turns out it does. The Georgia Supreme Court held in the case of Cain v. Kendrick, held that a dismissal (as opposed to a nolle prosequi) is a final termination of a criminal matter in favor of the criminal defendant such that the element in a malicious prosecution case would be satisfied. In less legalese, that means our win on Tuesday sets up at least that element of your case against the City. See also, Ayala v. Sherrer, 234 Ga. 112 (1975) (dismissal over prosecutor's objection is a termination of the criminal matter in favor of the Defendant).

Our previous terms of employment required you to pay me $175 per hour for the work I did. That does not change. Win or lose in the civil matter against the City, that obligation remains.

In the civil matter, I would be entitled to fees as follows: any and all sums allocated as attorney's fees (including any unpaid sums remaining from the invoice for the underlying criminal representation) at the hourly rate claimed in the civil case. (As you recall, I cut my hourly rate for you in the criminal matter). In addition, I would receive 40% of any recovery paid to you in addition to any allocated attorney's fees.

Since the civil case will involve claims for which attorney's fees are recoverable independently of any award of damages to you, this is a common fee structure. In any settlement, we will discuss how the dollars are allocated prior to accepting the offer. If the case goes to trial and we receive a verdict, the award of attorney's fees shall be in addition to my contingency share of the damages awarded to you by the Jury.

 

[justalayman]

So, find another attorney to mount the case. The attorney's fees are his payment. I would not agree to attorney's fees at an hourly rate PLUS a contingency fee on top of that.

 

[latigo]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? GA

My husband was served papers to appear in court for "failure to clean up property" that claimed he was the owner of. For various reasons the case was postponed 3 times (which he appeared in court each month) and then dismissed on this last time with the help of his attorney to the tune of $6,500.00 +. My question is, does he have any right to sue the City for wrongfully charging him as owner of the property which he does not own and has never owned? We just want to recoup the cost of the attorney fees as we were told he would take the case for $3,300.00, but now all of a sudden the bill we got was a lot more.

First, if your husband’s attorney agreed to a fee of $3,300, which seems an outrageous charge where the defense merely involved producing the county property records, then that is all the attorney is entitled to.

If he starts pushing for the larger figure, I would have your husband seek arbitration through the Georgia Bar Association.

As to recouping the expense from the City and the attorney for the city that signed the pleadings:

Have your husband remind his vulture of a lawyer of the provisions contained in Section 9-15-14 of the Georgia Rules of Civil Procedure entitled:

"LITIGATION COSTS AND ATTORNEY FEES ASSESSED FOR FRIVOLOUS ACTIONS AND DEFENSES".

If it is true that your husband is neither the owner of the property or a tenant in possession, - that is, no way legally responsible for maintaining the subject property - then the city’s act and that of its attorney(s) in not only filing the lawsuit, but inordinately protracting it, is precisely what that Georgia Court Rule is designed to penalize.

HOWEVER, I have to suspect that there is more to the merits of the City’s lawsuit than you have described.