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Can my attorney really charge me for this?

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bfpengi

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? UT

I have an attorney who I used in a child custody case. Besides the fact that she was useless and charged me over $20,000 just to fill out paperwork (really she just had the other attorney do it and would blindly send it whatever they typed up) and I lost the case. That's water under the bridge.

I never used to look at my invoices because I knew they were ridiculously expensive and I blindly paid because I knew how important this case was to me and my daughter. Well, now that the case is over, I still have a bit of a debt to my attorney and I've been starting to pay attention to the invoices so that I could get a better idea of how many more payments I have to make.

I have been sending this attorney $1000/month for the last 6 months or so. We have no real agreement on how much to send or when payment is due. I send everything I can and I make sure that I make at least one payment a month. I've been very reliable with my monthly $1000 payments.

Well, I started noticing on my invoice that I was being charged for "reminder" calls. My attorney calls and leaves a message asking when I think payment will arrive every month. Sometimes she calls me a few days in a row. I then get charged $20 for every call. One time she called to ask me if I wanted to pursue getting a higher child support payment (even though I have told her many times that this was not a priority) and she charged me for the phone call. How can she charge me for an unsolicited phone call?

This last invoice I received just blew my mind. She charged me $40 for two phone call reminders about payment and then charged me $70 for a letter she drafted about the payment.

She sends me an invoice every month. I send a sizable payment every month. I have never let a month pass without a payment. Shouldn't the invoice be enough of a reminder? Can she really keep calling me and sending me letters and charging me for them?
 


You Are Guilty

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? UT

I have an attorney who I used in a child custody case. Besides the fact that she was useless and charged me over $20,000 just to fill out paperwork (really she just had the other attorney do it and would blindly send it whatever they typed up) and I lost the case. That's water under the bridge.

I never used to look at my invoices because I knew they were ridiculously expensive and I blindly paid because I knew how important this case was to me and my daughter. Well, now that the case is over, I still have a bit of a debt to my attorney and I've been starting to pay attention to the invoices so that I could get a better idea of how many more payments I have to make.

I have been sending this attorney $1000/month for the last 6 months or so. We have no real agreement on how much to send or when payment is due. I send everything I can and I make sure that I make at least one payment a month. I've been very reliable with my monthly $1000 payments.

Well, I started noticing on my invoice that I was being charged for "reminder" calls. My attorney calls and leaves a message asking when I think payment will arrive every month. Sometimes she calls me a few days in a row. I then get charged $20 for every call. One time she called to ask me if I wanted to pursue getting a higher child support payment (even though I have told her many times that this was not a priority) and she charged me for the phone call. How can she charge me for an unsolicited phone call?

This last invoice I received just blew my mind. She charged me $40 for two phone call reminders about payment and then charged me $70 for a letter she drafted about the payment.

She sends me an invoice every month. I send a sizable payment every month. I have never let a month pass without a payment. Shouldn't the invoice be enough of a reminder? Can she really keep calling me and sending me letters and charging me for them?
That practice is called "fee on a fee" and many states do in fact, prohibit it. Unfortunately, I do not know if Utah is one of them, but I suspect these people do (or at least can get you pointed in the right direction to find out):
http://www.utahbar.org/public/fee_arbitration_service.html

Good luck.
 

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