Do I pay my divorce attorney for work she does after my spouse dies?

[smh3882]

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

I filed for a divorce in Nov 2007. My husband passed away March 15, 2008. We didnt even get to the depositions. At the end of Feb 08 I had about $1200 left on my account. I find out that now I owe her over $500. She was charging me to talk to his attorney and the courts AFTER he passed...Is she allowed to charge me for these things even though he died and the divorce shouldve automatically been done? I have charges that are from 3-17, 3-17, 3-19, 3-24, 4-14, 4-29, 4-29, 5-01, 6-10 and 6-10.....I didnt think that they were allowed to continue to charge is the other spouse dies...???? Please help she is sending this to collections and I dont feel I should be charged for any fees after he died. His attorney didnt charge his mother (which is who hired him)

[Proserpina]

Originally Posted by smh3882

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

I filed for a divorce in Nov 2007. My husband passed away March 15, 2008. We didnt even get to the depositions. At the end of Feb 08 I had about $1200 left on my account. I find out that now I owe her over $500. She was charging me to talk to his attorney and the courts AFTER he passed...Is she allowed to charge me for these things even though he died and the divorce shouldve automatically been done? I have charges that are from 3-17, 3-17, 3-19, 3-24, 4-14, 4-29, 4-29, 5-01, 6-10 and 6-10.....I didnt think that they were allowed to continue to charge is the other spouse dies...???? Please help she is sending this to collections and I dont feel I should be charged for any fees after he died. His attorney didnt charge his mother (which is who hired him)

If she did the work, she's entitled to be paid for the work she's done. Have you asked for an accounting of what she did during this time?

[mistoffolees]

Originally Posted by smh3882

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

I filed for a divorce in Nov 2007. My husband passed away March 15, 2008. We didnt even get to the depositions. At the end of Feb 08 I had about $1200 left on my account. I find out that now I owe her over $500. She was charging me to talk to his attorney and the courts AFTER he passed...Is she allowed to charge me for these things even though he died and the divorce shouldve automatically been done? I have charges that are from 3-17, 3-17, 3-19, 3-24, 4-14, 4-29, 4-29, 5-01, 6-10 and 6-10.....I didnt think that they were allowed to continue to charge is the other spouse dies...???? Please help she is sending this to collections and I dont feel I should be charged for any fees after he died. His attorney didnt charge his mother (which is who hired him)

"I find out that now I owe her"

Who is 'her'? If you're talking about your attorney, why didn't you stop it right after he died? She had 10 conversations and you never objected.

An attorney has a right to get paid for their work. She clearly did work on your behalf. There is no reason to believe that her work would end when your husband died. There are plenty of situations where there would be issues that needed to be resolved even after he died. If there was no reason for the calls, the attorney should have said something, but, again, there may have been legitimate unresolved issues.

You should have spoken up earlier - BEFORE she made all these phone calls.

You're free to talk with the attorney and explain that the work was unreasonable and hope that they'll reduce the bill, but they have no obligation to do so.

[smh3882]

I had called the clerk of courts and asked what I needed to do after he died to drop her as my attorney, I did what they said and it took her and the other attorney 2 months to file the paperwork to have the case dropped. See she originally told me all I would be responsible to pay was a court reporter that we had used in the begining of feb which was only $215. I was ok with that but when he passed we had to come down to Fl for his funeral and I had asked her for the remainder of my balance that was on the acct. $1200 on Feb28th...So from that day to March 15th she is saying that she used it all up. So for the next 2 months after he died she was charging me for things that didnt need to be happening. How do I know she spent half a hour on the phone with the opposing attorney or email or fax...what if she made it up so she didnt have to give me a refund? Once she told me that I actually owed her money and that she used it all up before he died she said she would forget about the extra balance but all I needed to pay for was the $215 for the court reporter. I told her that was fine but being a single mother of 2 now I couldnt come up with the money right away..After about a month she sent me a letter saying I owe her over $500 now. I just really feel like she "milked" the money so she wouldnt have to give me a refund. How can I get the proof of how long she spent on the phone, emails and faxes?

[Proserpina]

Originally Posted by smh3882

I had called the clerk of courts and asked what I needed to do after he died to drop her as my attorney, I did what they said and it took her and the other attorney 2 months to file the paperwork to have the case dropped.

What were you told, and what did you actually do? And when?

See she originally told me all I would be responsible to pay was a court reporter that we had used in the begining of feb which was only $215. I was ok with that but when he passed we had to come down to Fl for his funeral and I had asked her for the remainder of my balance that was on the acct. $1200 on Feb28th...

Do you have your original retainer agreement handy?

So from that day to March 15th she is saying that she used it all up. So for the next 2 months after he died she was charging me for things that didnt need to be happening. How do I know she spent half a hour on the phone with the opposing attorney or email or fax...what if she made it up so she didnt have to give me a refund?

Again, ask for an accounting. But be prepared - if she sends you an invoice showing, for example, time spent on the phone that's really all the proof that she needs.

Once she told me that I actually owed her money and that she used it all up before he died she said she would forget about the extra balance but all I needed to pay for was the $215 for the court reporter.

Did you get this in writing?

I told her that was fine but being a single mother of 2 now I couldnt come up with the money right away..After about a month she sent me a letter saying I owe her over $500 now. I just really feel like she "milked" the money so she wouldnt have to give me a refund. How can I get the proof of how long she spent on the phone, emails and faxes?

Please clarify - was your original balance $1200, and she is now asking for a further $500 on top of that amount?

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by smh3882

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

I filed for a divorce in Nov 2007. My husband passed away March 15, 2008. We didnt even get to the depositions. At the end of Feb 08 I had about $1200 left on my account. I find out that now I owe her over $500. She was charging me to talk to his attorney and the courts AFTER he passed...Is she allowed to charge me for these things even though he died and the divorce shouldve automatically been done? I have charges that are from 3-17, 3-17, 3-19, 3-24, 4-14, 4-29, 4-29, 5-01, 6-10 and 6-10.....I didnt think that they were allowed to continue to charge is the other spouse dies...???? Please help she is sending this to collections and I dont feel I should be charged for any fees after he died. His attorney didnt charge his mother (which is who hired him)

So, you are saying that there was 1200.00 left on your retainer at the end of february, and now (quite a while later) she is stating that the 1200.00 is used up and you owe her another 500.00. Correct?

I would recommend making a complaint with the local bar association.

When your husband passed away that basically ended the divorce case. I can see some validity in a couple of phone conversations between your attorney and your husband's attorney shortly after his death...mop up stuff. The charges through March may very well have been valid.

However, anything beyond that is likely not valid at all unless the attorney had your express consent to continue to act on your behalf.

[mistoffolees]

Originally Posted by LdiJ

So, you are saying that there was 1200.00 left on your retainer at the end of february, and now (quite a while later) she is stating that the 1200.00 is used up and you owe her another 500.00. Correct?

I would recommend making a complaint with the local bar association.

When your husband passed away that basically ended the divorce case. I can see some validity in a couple of phone conversations between your attorney and your husband's attorney shortly after his death...mop up stuff. The charges through March may very well have been valid.

However, anything beyond that is likely not valid at all unless the attorney had your express consent to continue to act on your behalf.

There are plenty of things that could have extended into 6 phone conversations over 4 months. There's absolutely no way of knowing that the charges were unreasonable without knowing what the attorney did. It doesn't take very much time cleaning up loose ends to hit $500.

OP needs to take it up with the attorney and ask exactly what was done and resolve it with her.

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by mistoffolees

There are plenty of things that could have extended into 6 phone conversations over 4 months. There's absolutely no way of knowing that the charges were unreasonable without knowing what the attorney did. It doesn't take very much time cleaning up loose ends to hit $500.

OP needs to take it up with the attorney and ask exactly what was done and resolve it with her.

Its not $500.00. Its 1200.00 plus 500.00 = $1700.00

The attorney is saying that the remaining 1200.00 of the retainer was used up, and that the OP owes another 500.00 on top of that. That's a lot of money for what should have been a simple closing of the case.

[mistoffolees]

Originally Posted by LdiJ

Its not $500.00. Its 1200.00 plus 500.00 = $1700.00

The attorney is saying that the remaining 1200.00 of the retainer was used up, and that the OP owes another 500.00 on top of that. That's a lot of money for what should have been a simple closing of the case.

I don't care if it's $120,000. We don't know what the attorney did so we have no business saying it wasn't legitimate.

OP needs to talk with the attorney.