My attorney lost the balance of the retainer I mailed to her.

[mfrankov]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Pennsylvania.
The attorney did a fair amount of work with only half of the original retainer in hand, along with the signed retainer documents.
Many months later, when I really needed this attorney to spring into action and "have my back", the attorney discovered that the balance of the retainer was not paid.
Can this attorney legally cease to work on the case and demand payment in full at this time?

 

[Shadowbunny]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Pennsylvania.

More details are needed to give you a response. Please use the "edit" button to add to your post, and don't use the "preview function" as it has a tendency to eat posts.

 

[Silverplum]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Pennsylvania.
The attorney did a fair amount of work with only half of the original retainer in hand, along with the signed retainer documents.
Many months later, when I really needed this attorney to spring into action and "have my back", the attorney discovered that the balance of the retainer was not paid.
Can this attorney legally cease to work on the case and demand payment in full at this time?

Your title doesn't match your post. Why is that?

 

[Ohiogal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Pennsylvania.
The attorney did a fair amount of work with only half of the original retainer in hand, along with the signed retainer documents.
Many months later, when I really needed this attorney to spring into action and "have my back", the attorney discovered that the balance of the retainer was not paid.
Can this attorney legally cease to work on the case and demand payment in full at this time?

Why do you expect her to work for free? Have your back? Really? Why didn't you pay what you owed? From now on you should go to work and work for nothing. Your boss can get around to paying you many months later. Sounds fair to me.

 

[not2cleverRed]

If the check was deposited, and this is a bookkeeping error, you have a legitimate gripe.

If the check was misplaced somewhere along the way, then the money should still be in your account. When the problem was pointed out to you, you should have placed a stop order on the check immediately and wrote out a new one.