Overbilling

[PhyrricVictory]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? NJ

Hired a lawyer for the purchase of a residential home. Quoted rate was $1500 for the typical deal plus $500 for expences. I gave a $2000 check at our first meeting. There were 2 transactions in this relationship.

Transaction 1.

1. Attorney reviewed the contract with us.
2. Letter to seller with proposed amendments.
3. Seller wouldn't budge on anything.
4. Shut down the deal.

Transaction 2.

1. Attorney reviewed the contract with us.
2. At the end of 1., attorney tells us that his office will be closed for the next 1.5 weeks. After some probing from us, we find out that we can "technically" (his words) lose the house to another buyer during this delay.
3. Attorney voids the existing contract.
4. We get a new attorney - the pay at closing kind.
5. Had we known about 2 before 1, step 4 would have been step 1.

Neither transaction got as far as title, reviewing an inspection report, closing, etc. Both terminated very early on in the process.

My refund - $25. $1000 seems much more appropriate. I got an itemized statement of time spent from him that claimed $1975 worth of time was spent. I think he's full of crap.

I'm thinking of small claims court, a nasty-gram to the bar, attorney general, and so on. I'll try calling him first but I'm not optimistic.

What are my chances of getting a proper refund and what is the best way to go about getting it?

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers.

PS. The new guy's working out just fine and Transaction 2 is proceeding wonderfully. All parties are great.

[garrula lingua]

Small claims & nasty-gram seem appropriate.

I would advise him of your intent when I asked for a refund - his vacation affected your representation & why should you pay, or be damaged, for that ?

[PhyrricVictory]

Thanks. I'll give them a shot. Going to wait till after closing so he can't muck about with the transaction, spook the sellers or whatnot.

Can I expect any sort of legal retaliation? E.g. lawsuit for libel/slander (I'll pretty much be acusing him of theft), counter-suit for his "time", etc.

Thanks.

[PhyrricVictory]

A related factoid, there's the Office of Attorney Ethics which handles fee arbitration and ethics complaints.

[url]http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/oae/index.htm[/url]

In case this comes in handy for anyone...