SINCITY89103
Member
What is the name of your state? FL/CA
My father has hired an attorney to fight a child support case (arrears from when I was 13, I am now 27). He lives in FL and the hearing was held in CA. He could not afford the trip to CA so he hired an attorney to represent him out there. He told the attorney that he did not have much money, she in return said that she would keep the cost low and "help him out". Well he received his first bill last week and called me up depressed not knowing what to do. It seems the lawyer gave him a bill for 1,300.00 dollars, for "1" court appearance. He said he only talked to the attorney twice, once to retain her and a 10 min phone conversation to go over so information right before she went into court for him. On his bill, the 10 min conversation is billed for a hour and totalled around 300.00 dollars. The day in court was billed at 2.8 hours and like 800.00 dollars. Another 200.00 dollar charge else where for the grand total of 1,300.00. The sad thing is the attorney did not accomplish a thing, he has another court date coming up and the attorney wants to be paid the full amount before making that appearance for him. My father called the child support agency and actually accomplished more over the phone than she did in court. Back to the root of my question, Does my father have any legal stand point to dispute these charges? She charged him what I and most people would consider a high rate (over 300.00 dollars and hour) and racked up other misc. charges that do not even make sense IE the 10 min phone conversation that was billed over 300.00 dollars. What should he do about this? Is he stuck paying these outlandish fees? He will be hiring another attorney, any reccomendations? He does not have much money. If he can not pay the 1,300 dollars what could happen?
My father has hired an attorney to fight a child support case (arrears from when I was 13, I am now 27). He lives in FL and the hearing was held in CA. He could not afford the trip to CA so he hired an attorney to represent him out there. He told the attorney that he did not have much money, she in return said that she would keep the cost low and "help him out". Well he received his first bill last week and called me up depressed not knowing what to do. It seems the lawyer gave him a bill for 1,300.00 dollars, for "1" court appearance. He said he only talked to the attorney twice, once to retain her and a 10 min phone conversation to go over so information right before she went into court for him. On his bill, the 10 min conversation is billed for a hour and totalled around 300.00 dollars. The day in court was billed at 2.8 hours and like 800.00 dollars. Another 200.00 dollar charge else where for the grand total of 1,300.00. The sad thing is the attorney did not accomplish a thing, he has another court date coming up and the attorney wants to be paid the full amount before making that appearance for him. My father called the child support agency and actually accomplished more over the phone than she did in court. Back to the root of my question, Does my father have any legal stand point to dispute these charges? She charged him what I and most people would consider a high rate (over 300.00 dollars and hour) and racked up other misc. charges that do not even make sense IE the 10 min phone conversation that was billed over 300.00 dollars. What should he do about this? Is he stuck paying these outlandish fees? He will be hiring another attorney, any reccomendations? He does not have much money. If he can not pay the 1,300 dollars what could happen?