another one charged for "free" consultation

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

Hello. I see there is another thread on this topic, however my circumstances are a little different.

I just received an invoice from a consultation back in March of this year.

I found their website and it said call for your free consultation. So I did and the receptionist or legal assistant set up a free phone consultation. I am out of state so I did this over the phone. Yesterday, I get an email as well as an invoice in the mail saying I owe $316.00. I'm thought, what??? That was suppose to be an initial free consultation. I emailed back saying I was told it was a free consultation with Mr. ______. Then he responded back,

"We normally provide an initial consultation of up to one hour at no charge. In your case, we provided 1.5 hours at no charge. We, therefore, found the invoice to be reasonable in light of the services provided, and respectfully request payment."

So, I looked at the invoice and apparantly they are charging me for the person who I talked with initially who was taking down all the information.

Do I have to pay this?

I never signed a contract with him. I had another legal issue come up which I am trying to handle until I hand it over to another attorney. (a truck I bought on ebay has over $100k more miles on it then it said it did). I was still considering using this attorney for my other problem, (renters who ran out on a contract oweing us thousands in back pay and forward pay).

I will not use this guy if this is how he treats people. Never was I told I would owe them money for taking down information to set up a free consultation. At no time did anyone tell me it's only for an hour and a half that's free, after that it's not. I guess I'm getting charged for the pre consultation?

So they are charging you for the time they spent beyond the 1.5 free hours? And you really think you should not have to pay for this?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure they can't charge you for setting up the consultation unless previously agreed to. I agree with swalsh that if you went over your free time you owe for that time.

goosegrease said:

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



I never signed a contract with him.

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Did they give you anything prior to your meeting about rates? If not, you owe them nothing. And their time asessment? Hard to prove.

Free_Advice said:

Did they give you anything prior to your meeting about rates? If not, you owe them nothing. And their time asessment? Hard to prove.

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If you want them to prove their case then let them sue and find out what the judge thinks you owe. Or you could just pay.

It looks like he is charging me for the time on the phone with his legal aid, prior to the phone consultation. And he did not even say anything about time or costs. It would have been nice if they would have told me this upfront.

send him a bill for dealing with this goofy money issue ... what, $732/hr?

Is he a supreme court justice or something?

I know alot of good attnys ... none gets that much.

How much total time did the attorney spend on the phone with you? At any time did he say that you had used up the time that was free?

goosegrease, was there a "click to agree" contract? If so, did you read it?

Did you think at any time to ask about costs prior to discussing your legal issue? Did you keep track of how long you were speaking with the attorney?




(as a side note to Free_Advice: some good attorneys get paid a lot more than that )

The attorney spent one and a half hours on the phone with me. No there was no click to agree contract and I signed nothing. I owe him NOTHING.

And no I did not keep track of the time the attorney was talking to me. Why would I if they never told me they would be sending me an invoice if he went over an hour. Full disclosure about their policy should have been given to me BEFORE the so called free consulataion.

I've spoken with two Houston attorney's tonight and they both advised me not to pay.

goosegrease said:

The attorney spent one and a half hours on the phone with me. No there was no click to agree contract and I signed nothing. I owe him NOTHING.

And no I did not keep track of the time the attorney was talking to me. Why would I if they never told me they would be sending me an invoice if he went over an hour. Full disclosure about their policy should have been given to me BEFORE the so called free consulataion.

I've spoken with two Houston attorney's tonight and they both advised me not to pay.

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"You'll get nothing .. and LIKE it !" .. Judge, Caddyshack

I get the distinct feeling that several recent posters are going to be mightily disappointed when they're successfully sued for non-payment of services rendered.

It's all in the fine print - without it, of course none of us here can guarantee one way or the other - but the vast majority of these websites have it all laid out quite clearly in the fine print.

They practice the fine art of CYA pretty well, as a rule.

Proserpina said:

I get the distinct feeling that several recent posters are going to be mightily disappointed when they're successfully sued for non-payment of services rendered.

It's all in the fine print - without it, of course none of us here can guarantee one way or the other - but the vast majority of these websites have it all laid out quite clearly in the fine print.

They practice the fine art of CYA pretty well, as a rule.

Click to expand...

??? He just saw their ad for a free consult & had a telephone consult .. I don't see where their website is relevant...said to "call for free.." so a click on the website to an agreement was not made that I can see.

Taking OP's version of events as accurate, in my opinion the attorney in this scenario handled this poorly and does not seem to have a viable claim for a fee.

It should have been communicated to OP that the free consult was for one hour only. The attorney should have watched the time and at the hour mark, announced that the consult was over unless OP wanted to pay to continue. If OP said yes, the attorney should have gotten a credit card number from him on which to charge the fee.

As is notable in at least one other profession, the best course of action for consultation fees is to get your money up front!

Most states (I have not specifically checked Texas) require attorneys to get a written retainer agreement signed by the client before they can charge any fees for their time.

(Hint: Check Texas' rules of conduct for attorneys).