Incompetence Lawyer - Do I have to pay - What to do ?

[anniebv99]

What is the name of your state? California

We live in San Diego . We hire a ( construction expert ) lawyer to help us handle an arbitration case ( because of a clause that prevent us from going straight to the Cal Contractor Licensing Bureau for help) .

We had a folder that I put every single paper relate to our dealing with the business, from original estimate cost, to actual contract cost. And a few paper I have duplicate copies .
When we were at her office, she asked can she copy my folder, I told her it is a mess, she said that is o.k., they can sort it out on their own.

Friday afternoon, we received copy of letter our lawyer send to the home remodeling business we have complained with, on our behalf , dated Apr 11, 2008 .
And copy of info she send to the expert witness firm she is planing to hire to work on our case , so he can review our case.

On the letter to the business, our lawyer addressed MY name instead of the business owner or their manager. Stating that she is representing my husband and I in taking ME to the arbitration court.
To make the matter worse, she mispelled my name, and also mispelled my husband's family name once. (My husband's family name only appeared twice on the letter, and she mispelled once ) .
We told her in the office that I still keep my maiden name, but were told it does not matter since my husband and I are married. She did not asked what is my maiden name is. She probably got my name out from the receipt I paid to the business, and probably thought that was the manager's name.

We felt like a fool ! Now the people we have a case against probably laught their head off when they receive the letter !

As for the copies she send to the expert witness so he can review our case. We think her office did not go over the info she get from us before she mail anything out. It seems that she copies the whole folder she got from us, and did not sort out which paper is relevant which is not, and send to the expert witness.

We called and email our lawyer, but have not heard from her (probably because of the wknd). We plan to see her Monday to fire her and get our money back, (we paid $1500 USD retainer fee, we were told that this to be use to pay here $250/hr fee and her secretary $75/hr fee, and other fee, and will be require to fill the fee up again when the fee goes down to $1000 ) .

We do not feel she is entiled to any fee at all ! Can we ask for the full amt $1500 back, or are we obligate to pay her whatever fees she already incured up to now, for drafting up and sending that letter out ?

Can we still go to another lawyer to help us with our arbitration against the home remodeling business ?

Thank You.