is lawyer exempt

[jaylo]

What is the name of your state? new jersey

a lawyer asked me to fill out a form for a client of mine that his is representing in a suit. I had orinally filled it out and faxed it to him to send in if he wanted or needed to. He did nothing and then i got a letter from him asking me to fill it out and send it in.
This would require me (or him) sending in money with it. I became annoyed at the fact that he is now either dictating to me to do this or requiring me (for some unknown reson) to do his work. I filled out the form again and sent it to the client to send in with the cash. I then billed the attorney for my fee for doing this work for him . He has not paid, it is 30days. Is he exempt from paying this invoice for some unknown reason. By the way I only do the 1040 for this client and he was a major pain in the A** regarding this.

Thanks in advance

jaylo(really ticked off!!!!)

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state? new jersey

a lawyer asked me to fill out a form for a client of mine that his is representing in a suit. I had orinally filled it out and faxed it to him to send in if he wanted or needed to. He did nothing and then i got a letter from him asking me to fill it out and send it in.
This would require me (or him) sending in money with it. I became annoyed at the fact that he is now either dictating to me to do this or requiring me (for some unknown reson) to do his work. I filled out the form again and sent it to the client to send in with the cash. I then billed the attorney for my fee for doing this work for him . He has not paid, it is 30days. Is he exempt from paying this invoice for some unknown reason. By the way I only do the 1040 for this client and he was a major pain in the A** regarding this.

Thanks in advance

jaylo(really ticked off!!!!)

**A: what the heck are you talking about?

 

[JETX]

"This would require me (or him) sending in money with it."
*** Your post is confusing as to what 'this' is and why you would have to send him money.

"I became annoyed at the fact that he is now either dictating to me to do this or requiring me (for some unknown reson) to do his work."
*** From the gist of your post, I would assume you are an accountant or tax preparer for another person (who is subject to some legal action requiring the attorney). Correct??

"I filled out the form again and sent it to the client to send in with the cash. I then billed the attorney for my fee for doing this work for him ."
*** Did you advise the attorney prior to this 'service' that there would be a charge and the amount?? Did he agree to pay it??

"He has not paid, it is 30days. Is he exempt from paying this invoice for some unknown reason."
*** If you didn't notice him of the charges prior to the services and get his agreement, then he is not obligated to pay your bill.

 

[jaylo]

is the lawyer exempt

yes I am a accountant. The form was to get copies of prior returns from the IRS. There is a charge for that from the IRS and you must send a check. When the client first "harassed" me about this and then calmed down I faxed a filled in form to his attorney (they are trying to get money from the client's previous employer or something). About a month later I received an annoying letter from the attorney asking me if I was going to file the form for the prior returns and if I hadn't done it would I please do so. I should have told him to do it or just ignored him but it was so annoying that I filled it out again and sent it to "his" client in response his (the attorney's ) request in the letter.

I had already sent this form filled out to the attorney to mail in or deal with it as he wanted to, why should he get me involved. I was so peroccupied with other more important matters that I just wasn't thinking clearly when I fullfilled his request.

Now I want him to pay the fee for Littigation Support....I sent him a second "past due" invoice and I am thinking of sending the unpaid invoice into collection.

This is why I am asking if he is responsible to pay my fee....I also sent him a copy of his letter where he requested me to handle filing the form with the invoice.

Sorry this was so unclear...it is just very annoying...an attorney telling me to do his work. His case , his work.


Hope this is clearer. Thanks again.

Jaylo

 

[JETX]

Again, did you notice the attorney that he would be liable for the charges incurred in the form 4506 filing??? And did he agree to pay the cost??
If not, then your adding the bill after the fact is improper and he is not liable for the payment.

Simply, that is something you should have taken care of BEFORE you paid the fees on his clients behalf.

 

[jaylo]

Then what you are saying is that anyone can send a request to do some work for them and if you do the work that they request they are not obligated to pay you. I have a letter from this attorney requesting that I do this work. Why would I do anything for this person if Iwas not going to get paid. Why would they just assume that I would.

I may still take the attorney to small claims court so he can put some time in on this for nothing just like I did. But my feeling is more that if he sent a "written" request for the work to be done and I fulfilled that request then he should pay my billing fee. I did not send money in with the form his client did, I just did the work to fill out the form a second time. But I am ticked off because they were not very professional in asking for this information and I was too distracted by my own problems at the time to deal with this anyother way . And now I have the time to pursue this further.

Jaylo

 

[JETX]

"Then what you are saying is that anyone can send a request to do some work for them and if you do the work that they request they are not obligated to pay you. I have a letter from this attorney requesting that I do this work. Why would I do anything for this person if Iwas not going to get paid. Why would they just assume that I would."
*** Okay, lets try this a different way.... lets say that you contacted me to provide legal services to you, no fees or charges were discussed. After listening to your situation and giving you advice on your rights and suggested actions, you said, "Okay thank you" and left my office. Sometime later, I send you a bill for the time I spent (1 hour at $300 per hour). Would you happily and promptly pay me, even though we NEVER discussed my fee or even whether you were being charged?? Of course not. Simply, no contract existed for my services..... just like in your case.

"I may still take the attorney to small claims court so he can put some time in on this for nothing just like I did."
*** And if you do that, don't be surprised if you get hit for his expenses and fees incurred in defending against your frivolous action.

"But my feeling is more that if he sent a "written" request for the work to be done and I fulfilled that request then he should pay my billing fee."
*** Sorry, but your 'feeling' has little or nothing to do with this. When you received his request for services (personal or client), you should have contacted him and 'contracted' for the service and payment. You didn't.

"I did not send money in with the form his client did, I just did the work to fill out the form a second time. But I am ticked off because they were not very professional in asking for this information and I was too distracted by my own problems at the time to deal with this anyother way ."
*** And YOUR failure was the proximate if not direct cause of this situation.

"And now I have the time to pursue this further."
*** Sorry, but you cannot unilaterally create a contract (for services) when none existed previously.

In any case, how long can it take for you (or anyone else to complete a few blanks on a form?? I am familiar with form 4506 and it is VERY simple.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-fill/f4506.pdf

 

[jaylo]

Hi Jetx:

Thanks for your time and opinion. I asume you know more "legally" than me. Yes this may be my fault but I will never again sucumb to such pressures. And if this client does call agin this year to have his little annoying 1040 done I will not respond as I should have with this situation. It was not the time to fill out the form that annoyed me it was that lack of communication from them both. All I got from the client was numerous telephone message demands to produce 5 years of returns. To which I replied several times to let him know what the cost would be. He would not reply with an OK on going ahead with the work. When I stopped responding to his messsages he finally left messages that were more in a way of a "normal" would you help me with this. To which I responded with a request for him to send me his attorneys fax and telephone # and that I would send the attorney the forms to send out(it's the attorneys case, has nothing to do wth me) to get the clients returns that I did not have (they were prepared by someone else).

Apparently the attorney's time was too valuable for him to send the forms in cause I recceived his very annoying letter about 6 weeks later asking me to complete the work. "NOT MY JOB" But as I had said before I was too upset or ditarcted by more imprtant matters. So I did try to get in touch with the attorney when I received this letter but his secretary kept telling me that he was not in. This situtaion would have just gone on and on.
So I completed the form once again and billed him.


But I know better now to just IGNORE people as LAZY as this so called attorney. I will not pursue this any further...thanks to your good advise but as they say "what goes round goes down" and I am sure that I will meet up with other people that we know mutually and I will not have anything of a good nature to say about him. And this client can get his return done somewhere else this year.


Thanks once again for your time and feed back......MUCH appreciated.

Jaylo

 

[HelpUsPlease]

JETX is an idiot. He doesn't know anything. He is not an attorney, but he loves them and is trying to protect this one.

File suit against the lawyer immediately. He'll probably pay you to save himself the time of going to court.

 

[JETX]

As if the comments by this idiot 'HelpUsPlease' have ANY credibility on the forum???
Lets take a look at some examples of this idiots posts on the forum:

"I wouldn't go back if I were you. I have warrants in several states and just avoid them. Why do you feel some need to go back there?"
https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?threadid=167157

"Let's say I'm driving on the interstate with approx. 10,000 hits of X in a compartment in my vehicle and the police stop me. They ask to search the car, I say no, and they tell me that they are detaining me while they wait for a canine unit to arrive to search the vehicle."
https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?threadid=167349

"I suggest you report it stolen and tell the police your friend stole it. Then you'll be off the hook with the rental company.
Your friend will be screwed though."
(Suggesting that the writer file a false police report)
https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?postid=573609#post573609

Yep, certainly sounds like a responsible, valued member of society, doesn't it??
Obviously not qualified to offer ANY, much less legal, advice to anyone.

 

[jaylo]

Jetx.....thanks once again for your sound advise.


Jaylo

 

[HomeGuru]

File suit against the lawyer immediately. He'll probably pay you to save himself the time of going to court.

**A: helpus really needs help. Can someone call the guys in the white lab coats.

 

[rikers]

File suit against the lawyer immediately. He'll probably pay you to save himself the time of going to court.

**A: helpus really needs help. Can someone call the guys in the white lab coats.

What do you know. for once I agree with Home Guru. They must be skating in hell right now.

 

[advicesucks]

Jaylo, youre an accountant right? Whats do you deal with in accounting? DOCUMENTS!

You received a letter from an attorney. Instead of doing the work against your desire, or trying to call him, why didnt you fax him back a quick letter saying "I charge $xx per hour for this work. Please sign and fax back to me so I may proceed".

Dont just ignore peoples requests, or try to be the "nice" guy and work for free. Write a quick letter and make some more money! You wouldnt be having this problem if you did things the right way.

 

[dequeendistress]

??!