My accountant remind me of the contract I signed

[lance77407]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? tx
Last year I engaged an accountant who is also an attorney to look into some tax matter.
He has a nice office and speak softly,he has over 40 years of experience,he has a son who has graduated out of law school but have not be able to find a job since 2008.
He offers his son a job t o work with him on cases involving legal matter .
He filed income tax return for his clients ,and he is often in court dealing with their tax returns.
I have used his service since summer of 2013 and he spent little time on my case and never pick up the phone as he is in court or not available,although he will return my phone call the n ext day.
He charged me the rate of a CPA/ATTORNEY although I suspect his wife is actually doing the grunt work.
He is always complaining his time is too valuable to stand in line at the post office and he claimed to do all the work himself including keying in data,when I asked why cant he hire a less experienced accountant to do keying and charge me less?
Now he suggested I should also take my case to court and he will charge me by the hour .not fixed sum or his son can work on my case as he is cheaper.
I have never met his son/
I suspect this is where he wants his clients to end up,-IN COURT so he can make real money and his son can get some legal experience.
I dont want to be in court so I terminated him,he was upset and reminded me that I am under contract to reimburse me for his time spent.
The latest bill he wants me to pay is some research work on an idea he misled me,which ended up with me spending 30 hours working till 5 am to pull and tabulate the data and sent to him which he didnot have time to review until I kept reminding him.
It was a wild goose chase which wasted my time ,his time and his son's time.for a person who has been practising over 40 years in the business ,he should know better.
I will see him tomorrow and picked up my file and he wants me to pay the bill.
I dont think he deserve the money as he wasted my time 30 plus hours,then he spent 2 hours on the phone talkig and keying for 2 hours and asked his son to research the matter for another 2 hours.
altogether he wanted me to pay 4 hours of the time the pair spent to prove his idea does not work.
so here we are a trio of idiots who spent 34 hours working on an idea which he should know it does not work ,given his tax and court experience of 40 years.
what should I do tomorrow,pay him,walk out with my file?
not pay him and let him take me to small claims court or pay him with fake bit coin?
advise and comments please.
( also I found him on his website offering free cousultation which he denied and billed me 2 hours of his time and denied he ever offer such on his website,he has since changed his website)
I have always paid my bills on time,but this last time is hard to swallow,if someone has a bad idea and all parties spen time on a wild goose chase,should the professionals get paid for their service?
his defense is that we dont know until you prepare all the data,which is BS,he should ask questions before he made me spent all these hours ,I found another accountant who is not a CPA and not an attorney and does not haev 40 years of experience,his reaction when he heard this is -IT WONT WORK AND HERE IS THE REASON.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? tx
Last year I engaged an accountant who is also an attorney to look into some tax matter. ...
... I have used his service since summer of 2013 and he spent little time on my case and never pick up the phone as he is in court or not available,although he will return my phone call the n ext day.
He charged me the rate of a CPA/ATTORNEY although I suspect his wife is actually doing the grunt work.
He is always complaining his time is too valuable to stand in line at the post office and he claimed to do all the work himself including keying in data,when I asked why cant he hire a less experienced accountant to do keying and charge me less?
Now he suggested I should also take my case to court and he will charge me by the hour .not fixed sum or his son can work on my case as he is cheaper.
I have never met his son/
I suspect this is where he wants his clients to end up,-IN COURT so he can make real money and his son can get some legal experience.
I dont want to be in court so I terminated him,he was upset and reminded me that I am under contract to reimburse me for his time spent.
The latest bill he wants me to pay is some research work on an idea he misled me,which ended up with me spending 30 hours working till 5 am to pull and tabulate the data and sent to him which he didnot have time to review until I kept reminding him.
It was a wild goose chase which wasted my time ,his time and his son's time.for a person who has been practising over 40 years in the business ,he should know better.
I will see him tomorrow and picked up my file and he wants me to pay the bill.
I dont think he deserve the money as he wasted my time 30 plus hours,then he spent 2 hours on the phone talkig and keying for 2 hours and asked his son to research the matter for another 2 hours.
altogether he wanted me to pay 4 hours of the time the pair spent to prove his idea does not work.
so here we are a trio of idiots who spent 34 hours working on an idea which he should know it does not work ,given his tax and court experience of 40 years.
what should I do tomorrow,pay him,walk out with my file?
not pay him and let him take me to small claims court or pay him with fake bit coin?
advise and comments please.
( also I found him on his website offering free cousultation which he denied and billed me 2 hours of his time and denied he ever offer such on his website,he has since changed his website)
I have always paid my bills on time,but this last time is hard to swallow,if someone has a bad idea and all parties spen time on a wild goose chase,should the professionals get paid for their service?
his defense is that we dont know until you prepare all the data,which is BS,he should ask questions before he made me spent all these hours ,I found another accountant who is not a CPA and not an attorney and does not haev 40 years of experience,his reaction when he heard this is -IT WONT WORK AND HERE IS THE REASON.

I think your smartest move might be to see the attorney tomorrow, go over the invoice with him, pay him for his services after this review, and walk out with your file. This seems a better option than waiting to be sued because I have a sneaking suspicion the attorney has earned what he has billed and can probably support the charges.

But the choice is up to you. I definitely would not pay the attorney with "fake bit coin," though (and I hope you were joking when you said that).

Without a personal review of the invoice and what he has accomplished for you, however, there is no way anyone can tell you if his charges are legitimate.

Good luck.

 

[lance77407]

I think your smartest move might be to see the attorney tomorrow, go over the invoice with him, pay him for his services after this review, and walk out with your file. This seems a better option than waiting to be sued because I have a sneaking suspicion the attorney has earned what he has billed and can probably support the charges.

But the choice is up to you. I definitely would not pay the attorney with "fake bit coin," though (and I hope you were joking when you said that).

Without a personal review of the invoice and what he has accomplished for you, however, there is no way anyone can tell you if his charges are legitimate.

Good luck.

Thank you for your advice,I will review the invoice and pay him ,
Should I remind him that I would leave a fair review of my experiece with his service on different websites like Yelp,nothing scandalous,but the whole experience of going nowhere in 7 months ,how much I have spent and the lousy idea which I spent 30 hours on and he should know better it does not work.
Clients are entitled to express their experience with their CPA/ATTORNEY,nothing inflamatory,just my personal experience for all to read.

 

[quincy]

Thank you for your advice,I will review the invoice and pay him ,
Should I remind him that I would leave a fair review of my experiece with his service on different websites like Yelp,nothing scandalous,but the whole experience of going nowhere in 7 months ,how much I have spent and the lousy idea which I spent 30 hours on and he should know better it does not work.
Clients are entitled to express their experience with their CPA/ATTORNEY,nothing inflamatory,just my personal experience for all to read.

I am not a fan of online reviews. They are used as an outlet for disgruntled consumers but rarely accomplish what they set out to accomplish - in fact, many of them backfire when the individual or entity reviewed takes exception to what has been written and sues the reviewer. Informing the attorney that you intend to review him means that, if you do post a review, it will be read by him.

It is hard for a reviewer to stick to the facts of their single personal experience because most experiences are not all that interesting or that horrifying. To make what is written more interesting and exciting and worthy of notice, many people will exaggerate or embellish or lie. This is what gets the writer in trouble. If you decide to write a review, I suggest you visit this site http://www.kcnn.org for information on how to write a review without getting sued (click on "modules" in the banner, scroll to "Legal Risks").

I can't tell you if the 30 hours of research was necessary or reasonable. That is a lot of hours. If you feel the attorney has inflated his time or his charges seem out-of-line for the work done, and you are not satisfied with the attorney's explanation of the charges, you can have them reviewed by another professional before paying. But this is likely to delay the release of your files.

Good luck, lance.