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How to dismiss attorney when said attorney is in jail??

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ready4it2bover

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

I have another post regarding this here: https://forum.freeadvice.com/adoption-34/tpr-adoption-503504.html

I thought this was a more appropriate category to post it on. How do I dismiss/terminate my attorney from my case when said attorney is in jail.

I was told at the clerk of court that said attorney would have to withdraw from my case before I could proceed. Lady at clerk of court said in my case she wasn't sure how to proceed since said attorney is in jail.

Any help would be appreciated.
 


las365

Senior Member
Do you intend to proceed representing yourself? Or do you intend to get another lawyer? Is the jailed lawyer a sole practitioner, or does he (or she) have associates at his firm?

If there are other attorneys at his firm, they can either take over the case or provide a Motion to Withdraw as Counsel for the firm.

If you want to hire a new attorney, the new attorney will take care of the Motion to Withdraw and Substitute Counsel.

If you are going to represent yourself and there is no one in the lawyer's office to work with to assist you in the withdrawal, you will need to file a Motion to Substitute with the Court to dismiss the current attorney and represent yourself. You would need to serve this on the lawyer. Whenther you would serve him at thejail or his officeis one question.

Out of curiosity, why is he in jail? Do you have any idea how long he will be there?
 

ready4it2bover

Junior Member
Do you intend to proceed representing yourself?

At this juncture I am not really sure if an attorney will be needed. As all the paperwork and stuff for the TPR/Adoption was filed March 20, 2009 all parties involved are in agreement as this is in the best interest of the kids.

Or do you intend to get another lawyer?

I will be consulting with another attorney tomorrow and see if he feels if one is needed and will go from there.

Is the jailed lawyer a sole practitioner, or does he (or she) have associates at his firm?

There were two attorney's at this law form. The attorney that was handling the case is no longer employed with the law firm. So the jailed attorney is the only attorney at the law firm now and I was told by the secretary that he would be handling the case. I learned this, this past Monday was a week ago when I called the law firm. As I have an upcoming contempt CS hearing Feb 19 for moms failure to pay CS


If there are other attorneys at his firm, they can either take over the case or provide a Motion to Withdraw as Counsel for the firm.

No other attorney's that I know of. I have called yesterday and today after discovering the attorney's arrest report and mug shot. No one is in the office as it is going straight to voicemail.

If you want to hire a new attorney, the new attorney will take care of the Motion to Withdraw and Substitute Counsel.

If you are going to represent yourself and there is no one in the lawyer's office to work with to assist you in the withdrawal, you will need to file a Motion to Substitute with the Court to dismiss the current attorney and represent yourself. You would need to serve this on the lawyer. Whenther you would serve him at thejail or his officeis one question.

Out of curiosity, why is he in jail? Do you have any idea how long he will be there?
According to the clerk of court public records. He has numerous (9+) criminal traffic violations. MM. Multiples DUI's, V.O.P, DWLS, leaving the seen of an accident w/bodily injury and/or property damage, criminal mischief just to name a few. From what I gather he will be incarcerated for at least 90 days. Not sure if this was just sentencing for one offense or if it was for all as I did not look at each individual charge. Could be more.

I will be consulting an attorney tomorrow to see if he thinks if I am capable of proceeding without representation. As I stated above everyone in an agreement the case was filed with the clerk of court March 2009. Nothing has been done since. It's beyond me as to why. I have searched other cases CT, MM, CF, DR, CC and so forth and a lot of these cases have been filed after ours and are now closed cases. I can't buy the "the case load is over whelming, that these take time" line anymore.

I have the girls mom on my case emailing me and such wanting to know why this case is still in limbo. Her thinking that I am holding up the process. She has been out of the picture for almost two years now. In arrearages on CS. I want nothing more than to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your time.
 

CJstudent81

Junior Member
I have same problem

I am pretty sure I have the same said lawyer... sentenced on Monday... works out of Destin?? I have my final hearing for my divorce next month, which is before he gets out of jail. He is completely useless, NEVER returns my phone calls, I have not received even one piece of mail from him in the 8 months he has had my case. I only knew about taking the transparenting seminar because I went to clerk of court and saw it in the file. I have tried to find out if his "partner" is going to represent me, but all i get is some other firm answering his calls saying all they can do is take messages. When asked how long they are taking messages for, a day, a week, a month? they said they didn't know.. I already paid him $2500, I do not have the money to pay another attorney. What do I do? No one seems to be able to give me an answer. Not to mention all he did was file papers, which I could have done myself, and he would not put the things I was requesting in the petition either. Told me we did not need to tell the Judge about my ex's documented drug habit. (we have a child).
 

HomeGuru

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

I have another post regarding this here: https://forum.freeadvice.com/adoption-34/tpr-adoption-503504.html

I thought this was a more appropriate category to post it on. How do I dismiss/terminate my attorney from my case when said attorney is in jail.

I was told at the clerk of court that said attorney would have to withdraw from my case before I could proceed. Lady at clerk of court said in my case she wasn't sure how to proceed since said attorney is in jail.

Any help would be appreciated.
**A: I knew some attorney's were crooks but you have a live one.
 

ready4it2bover

Junior Member
I am pretty sure I have the same said lawyer... sentenced on Monday... works out of Destin?? I have my final hearing for my divorce next month, which is before he gets out of jail. He is completely useless, NEVER returns my phone calls, I have not received even one piece of mail from him in the 8 months he has had my case. I only knew about taking the transparenting seminar because I went to clerk of court and saw it in the file. I have tried to find out if his "partner" is going to represent me, but all i get is some other firm answering his calls saying all they can do is take messages. When asked how long they are taking messages for, a day, a week, a month? they said they didn't know.. I already paid him $2500, I do not have the money to pay another attorney. What do I do? No one seems to be able to give me an answer. Not to mention all he did was file papers, which I could have done myself, and he would not put the things I was requesting in the petition either. Told me we did not need to tell the Judge about my ex's documented drug habit. (we have a child).
YES!! We UNFORNUATELY have the same attorney. His former partner who was representing me is no longer employed with the law firm.

Heck I have left voice messages for two weeks now and have yet to get a return call. We rehired the other attorney at this firm actually in 2008 to handle the TPR/Adoption case, papers were not filed UNTIL March of 2009 and as you stated nothing has been done other than the papers filed.

Wished there was something I can tell you other than hiring another attorney or going Pro Se. Even then you will still have to get SAID attorney to withdraw from your case. We are not alone according to my search he has ALOT of cases of whom are in the same boat. It's been a nightmare.
 

CJstudent81

Junior Member
an inkling of direction

I called the judge's office for my case and told them I was suppose to have my final hearing next month but as I am sure they know my attorney is in jail and will not be there and I do not have other representation. The call was actually forwarded to another judges office because my judge's secretary was out sick, but she said to call back Monday to talk to my judges secretary because all of the judges are handling this situation different. Some are delaying the hearings, and some are allowing you to continue and dismiss the lawyer. So I guess I will find out conclusively what I need to do on Monday, I would suggest you also call your judges office to see how they want this handled especially since you have to have the judges permission to have our worthless attorney withdrawn off your case. Hope this helps some. BTW I also found a loophole in his contract for the "true non refundable retainer" we should be able to get any unused portion of the retainer back. We can also go to the florida bar and have something done about his performance or lack there of, not being present for our hearings is considered misconduct. So hopefully this will make him think again when he doesn't do right by his clients. I don't know if it is relavent but he also lied to me assuring me that he would not be going to jail over these charges (which i did not find out about until after I had hired him) and that this would not effect my case at all. Well as we can see it is!!
Good luck.
 

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