What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? FL
This is a situation a relative is having, and the back story is a little long: Several months ago, she retained an attorney to petition for legal guardianship for her mother, who had been diagnosed with dementia. Mother lives in Florida. Petitioner does not, but the attorney she retained is in Florida, so she was communicating by phone, regular mail and e-mail. The fee agreement she signed with the Florida attorney stipulated an initial retainer of $4500 was to be paid to get started, but because Petitioner didn't understand the word "initial" or simply didn't pay attention to what she'd signed, she believed that was the entire amount she would have to pay ever. She truly believed she could get this done “on the cheap”, even though I and others around her tried to tell her differently.
Fast-forward three months later: The petition has been filed in the appropriate court in Florida, all affected parties notified, a competency hearing has been set. A week before that hearing date, Petitioner gets a letter from the attorney requesting additional retainer fees. Petitioner goes ballistic, fires the attorney because she believes he’s ripped her off (I, for one, think he did what she paid him to do).
Subsequently, the petitioner decides (against all advice not to do this) to go ahead and go into the competency hearing without an attorney. Her reasoning: She had successfully representated herself in small claims court, so she can handle this. Everybody with half an ounce of common sense tried many times to tell her this won’t work, but she would not listen. It was, to put it mildly, a fiasco for her. In court, the judge would not allow her to take part in the proceedings, beyond watching from the sidelines. When she lost the guardianship petition to her sister, she blamed everybody except herself -- she keeps ranting that the attorney her sister hired wasn’t qualified to handle guardianships simply because his web page didn’t list guardianships as his area of practice. (I agree, this is a stupid assertion on her part). She has even gone so far as to say the JUDGE had it in for her.
Now she wants to file a complaint with the Florida Bar, against the attorney (the one she hired and fired) for fraud and/or malpractice, but the man clearly did what she paid him to do before she fired him.
How the heck do I explain to her that she's only further embarrassing herself and that she has no case against this attorney?
This is a situation a relative is having, and the back story is a little long: Several months ago, she retained an attorney to petition for legal guardianship for her mother, who had been diagnosed with dementia. Mother lives in Florida. Petitioner does not, but the attorney she retained is in Florida, so she was communicating by phone, regular mail and e-mail. The fee agreement she signed with the Florida attorney stipulated an initial retainer of $4500 was to be paid to get started, but because Petitioner didn't understand the word "initial" or simply didn't pay attention to what she'd signed, she believed that was the entire amount she would have to pay ever. She truly believed she could get this done “on the cheap”, even though I and others around her tried to tell her differently.
Fast-forward three months later: The petition has been filed in the appropriate court in Florida, all affected parties notified, a competency hearing has been set. A week before that hearing date, Petitioner gets a letter from the attorney requesting additional retainer fees. Petitioner goes ballistic, fires the attorney because she believes he’s ripped her off (I, for one, think he did what she paid him to do).
Subsequently, the petitioner decides (against all advice not to do this) to go ahead and go into the competency hearing without an attorney. Her reasoning: She had successfully representated herself in small claims court, so she can handle this. Everybody with half an ounce of common sense tried many times to tell her this won’t work, but she would not listen. It was, to put it mildly, a fiasco for her. In court, the judge would not allow her to take part in the proceedings, beyond watching from the sidelines. When she lost the guardianship petition to her sister, she blamed everybody except herself -- she keeps ranting that the attorney her sister hired wasn’t qualified to handle guardianships simply because his web page didn’t list guardianships as his area of practice. (I agree, this is a stupid assertion on her part). She has even gone so far as to say the JUDGE had it in for her.
Now she wants to file a complaint with the Florida Bar, against the attorney (the one she hired and fired) for fraud and/or malpractice, but the man clearly did what she paid him to do before she fired him.
How the heck do I explain to her that she's only further embarrassing herself and that she has no case against this attorney?
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