denied right to represent myself from paid attorney who dropped me

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? new york;

I paid a divorce attorney 8k to represent me, he recently filed a motion to drop me as a client for no reason, days later uninformed i faxed him a release letter, i was told to get a consent to represent myself from another lawyer, untill i can save up money for my new lawyers retainer, when i spoke to his office on the phone they told me, "they dont do that, they will only give consent to another attorney", what does this mean, i cant represent myself, time is of the essence i have a court date in 2 weeks and i have no money for new attorney, i cant represent myself now? do you think the judge will adjourn it a month for me to get new attorney; its a contested divorce and ive only been to court 1 time for prelimenary confrence, how do i get this consent to represent myself; what if i dont have it, what can the judge do, will/can he drop the case? i dont understand, please help me, thank you in advance any information is greatly appreciated.

While you do not need consent to represent yourself, since you do have an attorney of record in this case, that matter will have to be cleared up before you represent yourself. But given you are confused with the issues at hand, and this is a contested divorce, you DO NOT want to put yourself in a position of being unrepresented at any time in this divorce.

You have a pending divorce hearing, and your attorney withdrawing without explanation before the hearing will be harmful to you by leaving you unprepresented. I would promptly send a letter by certified mail to that attorney insisting he show up at that hearing, or at least that he request a continuance in advance of that hearing. And let him know that if he does neither, that you will complain to both the judge and the state bar for leaving you swinging in the wind in a contested divorce case without representation.

Should your attorney refuse to do what you request, all you can do is show up in court at the scheduled time, explain to the judge why you do not have an attorney, show the court your attorney's motion to withdraw, show your response letter to your attorney, and request a continuance to allow you time to find another attorney.

You dont need consent to represent yourself, even if you also have an attny.

You can file a pro se appearance (even if you are also represented by an attny). The clerk should have the appearance forms.

If your attny has not filed a withdraw motion to the court (or did and the court has not ruled on it yet) & you do not have a pro se appearance filed, then yes, you cannot represent yourself.

There generally is a "gap" when an attny says he wishes to withdraw & he actually withdraws (via court order).

Sounds like you have not paid your attny.

If you don't know your representation rights though, I doubt you could adequately protect your interests in court.

Even if you technically do not have an attny who is willing to do anything for you; you can ask for a continuance to find a new attny...likely 2 weeks to 4 weeks will be given w/o a hassle.

How long do you think you will need to be able to : a) afford one and b) get one?

Also, an attny cannot walk away without a good reason. You must not have been happy with his performance or other aspect. But if you were, you can still file an objection to the withdraw motion if you wish to retain the attny. If you have not paid him, its a good reason.

Recommend you find a new attny...

davidmcbeth3 said:

You dont need consent to represent yourself, even if you also have an attny.

You can file a pro se appearance (even if you are also represented by an attny). The clerk should have the appearance forms.

If your attny has not filed a withdraw motion to the court (or did and the court has not ruled on it yet) & you do not have a pro se appearance filed, then yes, you cannot represent yourself.

There generally is a "gap" when an attny says he wishes to withdraw & he actually withdraws (via court order).

Sounds like you have not paid your attny.

If you don't know your representation rights though, I doubt you could adequately protect your interests in court.

Even if you technically do not have an attny who is willing to do anything for you; you can ask for a continuance to find a new attny...likely 2 weeks to 4 weeks will be given w/o a hassle.

How long do you think you will need to be able to : a) afford one and b) get one?

Also, an attny cannot walk away without a good reason. You must not have been happy with his performance or other aspect. But if you were, you can still file an objection to the withdraw motion if you wish to retain the attny. If you have not paid him, its a good reason.

Recommend you find a new attny...

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Can't someone slap a muzzle on this self-absorbed, overbearing, uneducated menace?!

Listening to him is like taking medical advice from a debt-ridden mortician.

my wife opened a corporation in my name and forged my tax returns federal and state in 06, 07 and 08,,,,didnt file in 09 now 10,,, she also has a bank account in my corp name and ein#,, i believe she did this to evade taxes for her parents company,,, even though this is id theft and i want her locked up am i able to get half that money she ran through my bank account,,,,this is why my lawyer walked away,, he did some real unethical things and i confronted him on it, so,,, just wondering lets say 1 mill went through this bank account which i believe it did even though im claiming id theft am i still able to claim half this money since it was in my name?,,,

latigo said:

Can't someone slap a muzzle on this self-absorbed, overbearing, uneducated menace?!

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well, you can't say it is for lack of trying. So far nobody has been successful.

basically heres my story in a nut shell, i work fulllll time for my estranged wifes parents, she like i said started this corp and on my tax returns it says i am 100% shareholder of ownership, she been forging my name, then she opens this chase bank account, applies to a payroll company and starts paying me from my own company, meanwhile filing no payroll taxes, allthough the payroll company is also a P.E.O.,,,proffesional employer organazation, so i guess thats why she filed 000's on all federal and state quarterly payroll taxes, although this peo is not a legal peo in ny, so i found out she has been paying unemployment insurance under my alleged corp name which doesnt even make sense, so basically she %$#@#$% up all taxes in MY name, by forgery and fraud, other apps i got from this payroll/insurance and peo are fraud becouse she claims shes 50% owner, i have lots of apps and stuff i recovered from these companys like i said is fraud,,, basically i also THINK she was doing jobs for her parents but getting paid in my corp name and funneling money through this bank account untaxed and sending it back over to her parents, now im liable for all this tax mess,,, i filled for divorce, im the plaintiff, basically becouse we got a HUGE mortgage and i ^%$#$%# up and signed it then left her 1 day later becouse i know something is going on, but i didnt know what, now i found out, i payed a attorney 8000 retainer and i think he was paid off by my wealthy wife and her parents to cover this up, i kinda figured out he wasnt working in my best intrest so after his no response for 5 days in a row i kept emailing him a simple few questions i got advice from another attorney and fired his ass, then he responded saying he filed a motion to drop me 1 day after our first preliminary confrence,, he is definitly working for my wife, i cought him talking to her w/o her attorney when i left courtroom after it was over then 5 min later reentered and my attorney and my estranged wife werte speaking,, also he tries to get me to agree to rediculouse terms and trys to get me to sign stuff without even reading it, where i basically agree to no discovery thats why i had to fire his ass,,,, anyway 1 important question even though this is identity theft in part of my wife can i sue her/her parents for half of the money that went through MY corporations bank account, FYI i was denied to get these bank records from chase 4 times with more then enoughh proof it was in my corp name and ein#,,, then i just found out my attorney did subpeona the bank records on our first court date but never told me and filed a motion to drop me 1 day later, obviously another cover up,, i did find out though becouse i filed a change of address of my corp name from her parents companys address and i recieved a letter from chase addressing this subpeona, thats how i found out, no wonder my attorney was in a rush to drop me 1 day after court, i think the judge made him or he didnt want to look bad to the judge so he filed it never told me then filed a motion against me.

any advice on this is greatly appreciated, hopefully i will have enough money for new attorney in 4 weeks it will be close, but again an important question i have is can i get half of all the money that went through MY corporation bank account? even though it was all fraud and forgery?.....i wonder how much my wifes family paid my attorney off, i bet it was a decent amount becouse i can almost guarentee atleast 1 mill went through this bank account, and my attorney was a high profile attorney for 400/hr, i still cant believe how much this guy screwed me but at least im paying close attention and i did allot of research so far,, i even went to the judges courtroom pretrial to check on my aff in opp and make sure it was the same, FYI my attorney was pissed when he found that out screw him, i got allot riding on this, my wife is also filed pendent lite for 5000 for mortgage then pend lite for all home carrying utilitys, then 2k/mnth for child support, based on a fraudelent salerie she was paying me,,,, i never even seen my paychecks in 4 years the whole time i worked for her parents she just kept them and all our personall bank accounts were in her name, i just beg for cash every week and work my ass of for her ungreatfull parents to supporty my 3 kids,, im so happy i left this bitch after 12 long years ;/

Your attny probably thinks you are crazy ... thats why he left the case...

why would he file a subpeona, not tell me then file a motion to drop me? my wife is the crazy one who commited all this illegal crap?

am i entitled to half of the bank account monies that went through it?

You'd have to ask him, and, no.

patyannucci said:

why would he file a subpeona, not tell me then file a motion to drop me? my wife is the crazy one who commited all this illegal crap?

am i entitled to half of the bank account monies that went through it?

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Frankly I think you both might be needing criminal defense attorneys, not divorce attorneys....