@@Father gets screwed by inadequate lawyer.

After having a hearing to determine whether or not my fiancee was allowed to get a paternity test to see if "his son" was his, we were informed that we may have a possible lawsuit against our previous attorney.
Without getting into too much history,we previously had a Lawyer, who I'll call"LawyerA". We informed "Lawyer A" about two years ago, that the child may not be my fiancees. Also, almost two years ago, my fiancee's "ex" filed for child support. We told Lawyer A that we had found a letter to his "ex" stating that there was a question as to who the father of the child was. We presented this information to Lawyer A, who told us to let her do the talking in the child support hearing. Trusting her legal expertise, we did just that. By the time the custody and child support hearings were done, just the average, run of the mill custody/child support case, we had a lawyer bill of $4000 for an alleged 40 hours of her time. Not only that, but the issue of paternity was never brought up, nor did she explain my fiancee's rights at that point to ask for a paternity test. Now, we're paying his ex $350 per month for a child that may or may not be his. We are not even allowed to get a test to find out. Is this good grounds to sue the lawyer for poor representation (not the legal term for it, but you get my point.)? Is there something we can do? I mean, there's no way she spent 40 hours preparing for those hearings. Then, when she got in there, she completely made a mess out of the whole thing! HELP!!!!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jennie:
[b]we had a lawyer bill of $4000 for an alleged 40 hours of her time. [/b]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Most attorneys will bill in time slots. IE, each 6,10,15,20 minutes. It is a very important question to ask any attorney, also that they will prepare a statement of work/costs every bi-weekly or at least monthly.

My last attorney charged in 12 minute slots and ever two weeks I got a statement. It showed the date, the task, the time and the charge. At the end was a total and then how much of the retainer was left. These are things that need to be discuss and agreed before you pay an attorney anything.

This is not legal advice, this is what I would do. Refuse to pay until you see a fully itemised statement detailing every task. If they do not provide this, report them to the state bar.

As regards to the malpractice. I have no experience to offer, except that regardless of hiring a professional to do a job, you should also education yourself of the work involved and ensure you understand each and every step. Whilst at the custody hearing, you should not have let things 'close' without asking the attorney there and then to bring it up.. if you have to, bring it up yourself.

I do not care how much I am paying someone, I am not about to leave such important life changing decisions to some stranger I hardly know.