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Extraordinary Fees Objections?

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jimmyg41

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Well I had a few questions that hopefully the nice people of this forum could answer or offer guidance for. We are at the end of closing out the estate for my deceased mother in law and have just recieved the final costs for the estate. The estate was valued at $295,000 (we settled for $150,000 with the husband, out of court). There was a legal battle between us and the seperated husband and the same attorney was "helping" us with that. This dragged on over two years with almost no help from the attorney to settle the estate. Finally we agreed with the husband and decided on the amount (without the attorney). At one point the attorney asked the judge if he could drop us because he didn't see any light at the end of the tunnel as far as compensation (it was a tough battle) and the judge told him no. The attorney's paralegal messed up on serveral occasions filing paperwork and we had to come in and out of her office to get it done after they admitted to being at fault. Honestly for the last year we have not spoken to said attorney only his paralegal. Today they hit us with $37,500 in extraordinary fees which we feel is totally unjust to the amount of work they put in. They did nothing and almost dumped us at one time. Literally, they just filed paperwork and did nothing "extraordirany". I guess I'm just stunned and was hoping to seek advice. Is this normal? Do I have an recourse? I'm just so angry because the attorney and their office avoided us for months thinking we were deadbeats with no case. We called them to say we settled and all of a sudden they're back on board but still rather clueless and no support from the actual attorney, guess he's too important for us...but not to important for our $50K.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
What does the agreement (written) with the attorney say about his fees?

Why didn't you FIRE the attorney (if he was doing so bad)?
 

jimmyg41

Junior Member
At one point it seemed like we would get nothing but after talking to the husband he decided to refi the house and give us $150k (it wasn't as easy as it sounds). We were tired and wanted to put this to a close. We're not savy when it comes to all these court things. We asked the attorney multiple times to show us what kinda costs we were incurring but they blew us off everytime. I will look for the paperwork we originally signed. Still...does this sound like something typical? I'm just a normal guy and probate is nothing something we go through everyday.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
At one point it seemed like we would get nothing but after talking to the husband he decided to refi the house and give us $150k (it wasn't as easy as it sounds). We were tired and wanted to put this to a close. We're not savy when it comes to all these court things. We asked the attorney multiple times to show us what kinda costs we were incurring but they blew us off everytime. I will look for the paperwork we originally signed. Still...does this sound like something typical? I'm just a normal guy and probate is nothing something we go through everyday.
What does the agreement (written) with the attorney say about his fees?

Why didn't you FIRE the attorney (if he was doing so bad)?
 

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