Can my attorney really charge me for this?

[bfpengi]

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]

Originally Posted by bfpengi

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.