Lawyer Delayed Adoption & Billed Us for Her Mistakes – Do We Have Grounds to Decline Payment and Terminate the Agreement?

[mmccord2]

Background
My wife and I hired an attorney in Illinois to assist with the adoption of my 21-year-old and 17-year-old sons in Missouri. The process took nearly 18 months, despite there being no custody issues—their biological mother is deceased.

The adoption was finalized in March 2023, but we were billed nearly $10,000, including for mistakes made by the lawyer, such as errors in the paperwork that required resubmission.

After finalization, it took over a year for my 17-year-old son's amended birth certificate to arrive, but we still have not received the birth certificate for my 21-year-old son, nearly two years later.

The last time we heard from the lawyer was 10 months ago, when she billed us $165 for resubmitting paperwork due to her own filing error. Now, out of nowhere, we received a new invoice for $650 for work she supposedly did in May 2024 to follow up with the Bureau of Vital Records.

Additionally, she has now billed us another $350 for February 2025 efforts including phone calls she is making to clerks to check the status and for agreeing to resubmit the birth certificate request again. We were never informed of this work, never authorized it, and were not given updates on any progress. At this point, we are handling the birth certificate issue ourselves.

Our Questions:

1. Are we legally obligated to pay these new charges totaling $1,000 ($650 + $350) for work we were not informed about, did not authorize, and were not given updates on?
2. Is it ethical for the lawyer to bill us for fixing mistakes she made in her own filings?
3. Are we within our rights to formally dispute these invoices, terminate the business relationship, and refuse further payment?
4. Given that this lawyer is licensed in both Illinois and Missouri, should we file a complaint with the Illinois ARDC, the Missouri Bar, or both?
5. Do we have grounds to request a refund for any of the previous fees related to her errors and delays?

We would appreciate any guidance on our legal rights, next steps, and whether we should escalate this issue. Thank you in advance for your time.

 

[quincy]

Background
My wife and I hired an attorney in Illinois to assist with the adoption of my 21-year-old and 17-year-old sons in Missouri. The process took nearly 18 months, despite there being no custody issues—their biological mother is deceased.

The adoption was finalized in March 2023, but we were billed nearly $10,000, including for mistakes made by the lawyer, such as errors in the paperwork that required resubmission.

After finalization, it took over a year for my 17-year-old son's amended birth certificate to arrive, but we still have not received the birth certificate for my 21-year-old son, nearly two years later.

The last time we heard from the lawyer was 10 months ago, when she billed us $165 for resubmitting paperwork due to her own filing error. Now, out of nowhere, we received a new invoice for $650 for work she supposedly did in May 2024 to follow up with the Bureau of Vital Records.

Additionally, she has now billed us another $350 for February 2025 efforts including phone calls she is making to clerks to check the status and for agreeing to resubmit the birth certificate request again. We were never informed of this work, never authorized it, and were not given updates on any progress. At this point, we are handling the birth certificate issue ourselves.

Our Questions:

1. Are we legally obligated to pay these new charges totaling $1,000 ($650 + $350) for work we were not informed about, did not authorize, and were not given updates on?
2. Is it ethical for the lawyer to bill us for fixing mistakes she made in her own filings?
3. Are we within our rights to formally dispute these invoices, terminate the business relationship, and refuse further payment?
4. Given that this lawyer is licensed in both Illinois and Missouri, should we file a complaint with the Illinois ARDC, the Missouri Bar, or both?
5. Do we have grounds to request a refund for any of the previous fees related to her errors and delays?

We would appreciate any guidance on our legal rights, next steps, and whether we should escalate this issue. Thank you in advance for your time.

First, here is a link to the Rules of Professional Conduct for attorneys in Illinois, to read through at your leisure. https://www.illinoiscourts.gov/rules/supreme-court-rules?a=viii

We have a forum member who has both legal and personal experience with out-of-state adoptions. I will tag her and she might be the best person on this forum to address your questions.

@Ohiogal

Our Questions:

1. Are we legally obligated to pay these new charges totaling $1,000 ($650 + $350) for work we were not informed about, did not authorize, and were not given updates on?
2. Is it ethical for the lawyer to bill us for fixing mistakes she made in her own filings?
3. Are we within our rights to formally dispute these invoices, terminate the business relationship, and refuse further payment?
4. Given that this lawyer is licensed in both Illinois and Missouri, should we file a complaint with the Illinois ARDC, the Missouri Bar, or both?
5. Do we have grounds to request a refund for any of the previous fees related to her errors and delays?

The answer to question one can depend on the contract you signed with your attorney.

Mistakes made by an attorney that require additional time to correct probably should not have that additional time billed to the client. The attorney generally should absorb these costs.

Yes, you are within your rights to discuss with your attorney any and all charges being billed, and you can dispute any charges that appear on an invoice. You can also terminate your relationship with your attorney. However, terminating your relationship with your attorney does not mean you will not be responsible for paying for services already rendered.

You can file complaints against your attorney in the state or states where the attorney is licensed to practice. You should not fault your attorney for delays caused by the Bureau of Vital Records. These delays are not uncommon.

You will want to go over the billing with your attorney. Whether you can expect a refund of any money already paid depends on your contract with the attorney and on the legitimacy of the charges that were billed to you.

 

[LdiJ]

If you are in the Chicago area you can file a fee dispute with:

https://www.chicagobar.org/CBA/Legal_Help/Attorney_Fee_Dispute_Assistance/CBA/Legal_Help_for_the_Public/Attorney_Fee_Dispute_Assistance.aspx?hkey=82277848-de69-4e88-85dc-b5a830761565

If they cannot help you or you are not within their area they should be able to refer you to the correct organization to help you.

 

[quincy]

This is a link to the Illinois state Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) where you can download a complaint form:

https://www.iardc.org/Home/FileComplaint

I would discuss your concerns first with your attorney. The adoption process can be a lengthy one, as investigations and interviews are conducted. An attorney often has no control over the timing. And your attorney, although perhaps not as attentive to your needs as you might have wished and as he should have been, could have tried to keep your expenses down by limiting contact when there was nothing new to report. Something to consider.

 

[zddoodah]

Are we legally obligated to pay these new charges totaling $1,000 ($650 + $350) for work we were not informed about, did not authorize, and were not given updates on?

No way for anyone here to assess this intelligently. All I can say is that the fact that you were not informed ahead of time and did not specifically pre-authorize the work does not, by itself, make the time unbillable.

Is it ethical for the lawyer to bill us for fixing mistakes she made in her own filings?

I think most lawyers would not bill for that sort of work, but it doesn't violate any rule of ethics. What happened when you called the lawyer and objected to the charge?

Are we within our rights to formally dispute these invoices, terminate the business relationship, and refuse further payment?

Yes. Keep in mind that not paying might result in you getting sued.

Given that this lawyer is licensed in both Illinois and Missouri, should we file a complaint with the Illinois ARDC, the Missouri Bar, or both?

Since the work apparently was done in MO and you apparently are in MO, that would be the place to do it. As far as I can tell, the fact that the lawyer is in IL is merely coincidental (and I assume he lives near the border of the two states).

Do we have grounds to request a refund for any of the previous fees related to her errors and delays?

One does not need grounds to request things.

 

[quincy]

As a note, $10,000 is not an outrageous amount for an adoption of two children.

 

[Mark_A]

Obviously I don't know for sure, but getting charged "exactly" $10,000 sounds like a fixed fee arrangement rather than hourly charges that just so happened to exactly add up to that amount. If so, I don't think you should get nickeled and dimed for some follow-up items, especially if they were needed due to the fault of the attorney preforming the original service.

This could get a little tricky if not everything is completed yet, but I would just send them a letter explaining why you don't owe them additional fees for additional work required by their negligence.

 

[quincy]

Obviously I don't know for sure, but getting charged "exactly" $10,000 sounds like a fixed fee arrangement rather than hourly charges that just so happened to exactly add up to that amount. If so, I don't think you should get nickeled and dimed for some follow-up items, especially if they were needed due to the fault of the attorney preforming the original service.

This could get a little tricky if not everything is completed yet, but I would just send them a letter explaining why you don't owe them additional fees for additional work required by their negligence.

“Negligence” should not be claimed until all facts are known. A lot depends on the contract with the attorney.

 

[Mark_A]

“Negligence” should not be claimed until all facts are known. A lot depends on the contract with the attorney.

The OP said " she billed us $165 for resubmitting paperwork due to her own filing error"

Maybe you object to the word "negligence" and like "error" better. It doesn't matter, the client can tell the attorney that they don't want to pay for mistakes made by that attorney, especially "if" there was some sort of understanding that the adoption would be done on a fixed fee of $10,000. If the understanding was that the work was to be done on an hourly basis, and it is just a coincidence that the original bill was exactly $10,000, then it probably one could not easily withhold payment for additional hours needed.

I am not claiming that he attorney will agree to not paying, but I have done that before when an attorney lost a will and I refused to pay for some hours billed because they failed to exercise reasonable care when a bailment was created. The lawyer agreed, and I continued to use them for some additional stuff. I don't think I would pay any more invoices until the legal work for the adoption was 100% completed, and then figure out how much will be paid, and what will not be paid.

 

[mmccord2]

Obviously I don't know for sure, but getting charged "exactly" $10,000 sounds like a fixed fee arrangement rather than hourly charges that just so happened to exactly add up to that amount. If so, I don't think you should get nickeled and dimed for some follow-up items, especially if they were needed due to the fault of the attorney preforming the original service.

This could get a little tricky if not everything is completed yet, but I would just send them a letter explaining why you don't owe them additional fees for additional work required by their negligence.

I rounded. The initial deposit was $3000 as a retainer. That was in 2020. The adoption was my wife adopting my 2 biological sons whose mother is long deceased. It took 2 years and another approximately $7500 in billables to finalize the adoption. She then said for $600 she would handle the form to get the updated birth certificate, and it would take maybe 6 weeks. That was back in March 2023. Two years later, she's had to make multiple revisions on resubmitting the one-page birth certificate requests and has billed us another approximately $3000. Sometimes, the lawyer would go "radio silent" for 3-4 months and then bill us for a flurry of activities to check on the status, calls to check, refilings due to missing data...

 

[Mark_A]

I rounded. The initial deposit was $3000 as a retainer. That was in 2020. The adoption was my wife adopting my 2 biological sons whose mother is long deceased. It took 2 years and another approximately $7500 in billables to finalize the adoption. She then said for $600 she would handle the form to get the updated birth certificate, and it would take maybe 6 weeks. That was back in March 2023. Two years later, she's had to make multiple revisions on resubmitting the one-page birth certificate requests and has billed us another approximately $3000. Sometimes, the lawyer would go "radio silent" for 3-4 months and then bill us for a flurry of activities to check on the status, calls to check, refilings due to missing data...

If all the invoices show billing by the hour, which is fairly common for legal services, then you have much less leverage. But you could just ask them why you should have to pay for work that was needed to fix their previous errors, and see what they say.

 

[quincy]

I rounded. The initial deposit was $3000 as a retainer. That was in 2020. The adoption was my wife adopting my 2 biological sons whose mother is long deceased. It took 2 years and another approximately $7500 in billables to finalize the adoption. She then said for $600 she would handle the form to get the updated birth certificate, and it would take maybe 6 weeks. That was back in March 2023. Two years later, she's had to make multiple revisions on resubmitting the one-page birth certificate requests and has billed us another approximately $3000. Sometimes, the lawyer would go "radio silent" for 3-4 months and then bill us for a flurry of activities to check on the status, calls to check, refilings due to missing data...

Thank you for the additional information.

I will tag the forum’s family law attorney once again. She has both legal and personal experience with this and could be of help. She has a busy life so it might take her awhile to respond. Look for a post by “Ohiogal.”

@Ohiogal

 

[Ohiogal]

Thank you for the additional information.

I will tag the forum’s family law attorney once again. She has both legal and personal experience with this and could be of help. She has a busy life so it might take her awhile to respond. Look for a post by “Ohiogal.”

@Ohiogal

I am here now...

 

[Ohiogal]

Adoptions can take two years.. 10k is not bad for adopting two people. However, she should not be billing you for mistakes she has made. What questions can I help you with? Be aware I am in Ohio and only licensed in Ohio.