attorney ethics

[Mello]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?Wisconsin. My question for you all is , I was considering entering in to BK because of a divorce. I had several thousands of dollars in savings I was told from attorney I should put into a "trust" with him to save from BK. He then wrote me a receipt for the money and listed the receipt as retainer. I had my business partner with me and we began to talk about the fee for the BK. He said he would do the BK--flat fee--for $1785. I agreed to this. After several weeks of preparation and trying to get all information for him, we came to the conclusion that maybe I wouldn't have file because all the debt was under a business my husband and I owned, which I removed myself through the divorce proces from--and all creditors were willing to let my obligations go. I then asked the attorney for the remaining funds-minus the $1785 and he hands me a bill for over $8500 stating my check for the $1500 will be in the mail--we did not sign any contract stating that he had an hourly rate--we agreed verbally-with two non-partisen witnesses of the fee and we agreed on the price. This is a verbal contract--correct. The he sends me an itemitzed bill with all the time and expenses and states that if I don't agree we can go to arbitration. I never agreed that I would use arbitraition nor was informed if there was any issues that arbitration would be the means of settling any disbutes. I believe that this attorney spent my money already and he doesn't want to give any account info in regards to this "trust" he has set up. This is fraud. I never agreed to anything more than that . I believe this attorney has committed consumer fraud--ethical practices and also fraud against the courts for asking me to store my funds into a trust . Please help! He is trying to get me to sign stuff and sending me stuff all the time. Can I ask for all my money back? Or let him keep the original amount seeing how he did put time into it?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by Mello

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?Wisconsin. My question for you all is , I was considering entering in to BK because of a divorce. I had several thousands of dollars in savings I was told from attorney I should put into a "trust" with him to save from BK. He then wrote me a receipt for the money and listed the receipt as retainer. I had my business partner with me and we began to talk about the fee for the BK. He said he would do the BK--flat fee--for $1785. I agreed to this. After several weeks of preparation and trying to get all information for him, we came to the conclusion that maybe I wouldn't have file because all the debt was under a business my husband and I owned, which I removed myself through the divorce proces from--and all creditors were willing to let my obligations go. I then asked the attorney for the remaining funds-minus the $1785 and he hands me a bill for over $8500 stating my check for the $1500 will be in the mail--we did not sign any contract stating that he had an hourly rate--we agreed verbally-with two non-partisen witnesses of the fee and we agreed on the price. This is a verbal contract--correct. The he sends me an itemitzed bill with all the time and expenses and states that if I don't agree we can go to arbitration. I never agreed that I would use arbitraition nor was informed if there was any issues that arbitration would be the means of settling any disbutes. I believe that this attorney spent my money already and he doesn't want to give any account info in regards to this "trust" he has set up. This is fraud. I never agreed to anything more than that . I believe this attorney has committed consumer fraud--ethical practices and also fraud against the courts for asking me to store my funds into a trust . Please help! He is trying to get me to sign stuff and sending me stuff all the time. Can I ask for all my money back? Or let him keep the original amount seeing how he did put time into it?

**A: you both deserve each other. Two scammers.