I fired a lawyer that lied to me--do I get $'s back?

What is the name of your state? Florida

Two years ago I was falsely accused and arrested on 4 felony charges. I wanted to take my case to trial, so I interviewed some lawyers at the jail and decided on one who claimed that after hearing my whole story that I had a "great case" for trial.

He then scheduled me for a bond reduction hearing at my request. He did a lousy job on that and lied to me about how we would prepare for the hearing.

The next time a saw him (at the jail) he came to me with a plea agreement which included 8 years in prison. He said that the state attorney "told" him that they have a good case aginst me. When I asked him if he went through my file to see if everything I told him in our meeting was true he told me that he didn't have time yet to look at my file.

I fired him shortly after that through the mail, after he refused to speak to me on the phone. I asked him to send me an itemized list of the time he spent on my case, and to return to my family the balance of the $10,000 fee that he agreed would "take me through trial". My family also sent him a certified letter asking the same. He has yet to respod to either.

Last week I went to trial with my replacement attorney and was found not guilty on all charges.

My question is, am I entitled to and money back from this lawyer who seemed to never have an intention of taking me to trial as he originally agreed? And if so, what is it that I need to do next. I do have a copy of the certified letter that my mother sent to him along with the signed return receipt. We had a verbal agreement with nothing in writing except the cancelled check for the $10,000 fee.

Thanks for your time in reading this

Ken S.

kmsfla said:

What is the name of your state? Florida

Two years ago I was falsely accused and arrested on 4 felony charges. I wanted to take my case to trial, so I interviewed some lawyers at the jail and decided on one who claimed that after hearing my whole story that I had a "great case" for trial.

He then scheduled me for a bond reduction hearing at my request. He did a lousy job on that and lied to me about how we would prepare for the hearing.

The next time a saw him (at the jail) he came to me with a plea agreement which included 8 years in prison. He said that the state attorney "told" him that they have a good case aginst me. When I asked him if he went through my file to see if everything I told him in our meeting was true he told me that he didn't have time yet to look at my file.

I fired him shortly after that through the mail, after he refused to speak to me on the phone. I asked him to send me an itemized list of the time he spent on my case, and to return to my family the balance of the $10,000 fee that he agreed would "take me through trial". My family also sent him a certified letter asking the same. He has yet to respod to either.

Last week I went to trial with my replacement attorney and was found not guilty on all charges.

My question is, am I entitled to and money back from this lawyer who seemed to never have an intention of taking me to trial as he originally agreed? And if so, what is it that I need to do next. I do have a copy of the certified letter that my mother sent to him along with the signed return receipt. We had a verbal agreement with nothing in writing except the cancelled check for the $10,000 fee.

Thanks for your time in reading this

Ken S.

Click to expand...

Here is my question: If you had a lawyer and paid him a $10,000.00 retainer to "take [you] through trial," then he would be the attorney of record. So how did you go through trial with another attorney (presumably not in the same firm) without a Motion for Substitution of Counsel allowing the first attorney to withdraw and the second attorney to become the new attorney of record?

Yes, obviously after I sent him the letter in which I fired him he motioned the court to withdraw from my case. I was brought to court, and with no objections from me the judge accepted his motion to withdraw. That attorney didn't even appear at that hearing.

Sorry, I was just trying to make a long story short. And my question still stands: Do you know if I am entitled to any money back from him?

KMS

kmsfla said:

Yes, obviously after I sent him the letter in which I fired him he motioned the court to withdraw from my case. I was brought to court, and with no objections from me the judge accepted his motion to withdraw. That attorney didn't even appear at that hearing.

Sorry, I was just trying to make a long story short. And my question still stands: Do you know if I am entitled to any money back from him?

KMS

Click to expand...

As a rule no one does show up of a Motion to Withdraw unless the client refuses to sign off on the motion and then, of course, a hearing has to be held but that is definitely the exception and not the rule. Afte a Motion for Withdrawal or Motion for substitution, the attorney provides an itemized statement. The attorney then refunds any unearned fees to the client. And fees which are in dispute remain in the attorney's trust account pending resolution of the dispute but those funds not in dispute are returned to the client. If the any funds are in dispute, and the dispute cannot be resolved between the attorney and the client, then the state bar (which incidentally is not the bar association) grievance committee resolves the dispute.

Sidebar: I cannot imagine either an attorney or a client not requiring a written contract when dealing with $10,000. Yes attorneys often quote a flat rate fee for preparation of simple, inexpensive document such as a warranty deed with vendor's lien and deed of trust but those type of things are very predictable as to the amount of time involved. Representation on a criminal case--and particularily 4 felonies--is not predictable as to the amount of time which will be involved. Therefore, such cases are generally billed on a hourly rate with a retainer requested in an amount of the ESTIMATED billable hours. So this was very sloppy business practices by both the attorney and the client. Such sloppies of the part of an attorney is a written guarantee for a grievance to be filed.

Thank you for your reply.

I did think it was odd to not be offered any sort of a written agreement but it seemed to be normal procedure with many attoreys in that jail (St. Lucie County Jail, Fl.).

So my next step is to try to contact my "State Bar" (should find something on-line) and file a complaint.

The reason I waited until my case was over is because the attorneys wife was my judges personal assistant and then that same lawyer became a misdemeaner judge in the same courthouse. I hope I can still file a complaint.

Thanks again for your help.

KMS