My attorney wants more money

[hartman]

Hello. I hired an attorney over two years ago to represent me and bring forward a lawsuit against the defendant who stole money from me by basically lying to me about a specific business venture and pocketing the money. This case is an indefensible case and there is not doubt the defendant is guilty. Anyway, my attorney decided to go down a path to be aggressive and needless to say, it has not worked. What should have been a simple process whereby my attorney would motion for a summary judgement turned in to a long drawn out case with exorbitant legal fees. At the beginning I told him that my budget was $40,000 and that is the amount I have paid him. Once the legal bills reached above that, I repeated told him via telephone and email that I don't have any more money and that once I collect from the defendant, I will pay him. Well, there were numerous errors committed by my attorney which caused this case to last this long and the legal fees to be so high. We went to mediation and because my attorney forgot to include a key phrase as we were working out the specific points of the deal, the defendant's attorney was able to drag the process out another six months. This resulted in having to go back for round 2 of mediation and additional legal fees. At the end of all this, the defendant signed a settlement agreement and then refused to honor this agreement. Therefore, I was awarded a stipulated judgement. Now my attorney told me I needed to hire a collections expert to go afte the defendant. It took me a few weeks to find this attorney and to come up with more money. All of the sudden, my attorney send me a letter in the mail saying he doesn't want to represent me anymore and if all of his unpaid bills aren't paid, he will sue me. I feel like I should have a right since he was already paid $40,000 and hasn't really accomplished anything. Most judgements are never collected on. Anyone have a similar experience?

 

[Ohiogal]

Hello. I hired an attorney over two years ago to represent me and bring forward a lawsuit against the defendant who stole money from me by basically lying to me about a specific business venture and pocketing the money. This case is an indefensible case and there is not doubt the defendant is guilty. Anyway, my attorney decided to go down a path to be aggressive and needless to say, it has not worked. What should have been a simple process whereby my attorney would motion for a summary judgement turned in to a long drawn out case with exorbitant legal fees. At the beginning I told him that my budget was $40,000 and that is the amount I have paid him. Once the legal bills reached above that, I repeated told him via telephone and email that I don't have any more money and that once I collect from the defendant, I will pay him. Well, there were numerous errors committed by my attorney which caused this case to last this long and the legal fees to be so high. We went to mediation and because my attorney forgot to include a key phrase as we were working out the specific points of the deal, the defendant's attorney was able to drag the process out another six months. This resulted in having to go back for round 2 of mediation and additional legal fees. At the end of all this, the defendant signed a settlement agreement and then refused to honor this agreement. Therefore, I was awarded a stipulated judgement. Now my attorney told me I needed to hire a collections expert to go afte the defendant. It took me a few weeks to find this attorney and to come up with more money. All of the sudden, my attorney send me a letter in the mail saying he doesn't want to represent me anymore and if all of his unpaid bills aren't paid, he will sue me. I feel like I should have a right since he was already paid $40,000 and hasn't really accomplished anything. Most judgements are never collected on. Anyone have a similar experience?

YOu could have chosen to fire your attorney at any point. You didn't. NOW you don't want to pay anymore but guess what -- you are bound to pay him for the work he did under the terms of the retainer agreement. And you need to hire a collections expert to get the money from the defendant if the defendant doesn't pay. That is on you. Just because you didn't realize that, is not your attorney's fault.

 

[Free_Advice]

Really, the attny-client costs should be set out in the contract. If the contract does not state a maximum payment to the attny then your argument that you limited the amount to 40K will not hold up.

I have had contracts that state a maximum limit (and anything over that would just be too bad for the attny ~ he would still have to represent me).

Your attny only represents you, he cannot force the person to pay. A judge can try to do that.

 

[hartman]

Thank you for the information Ohiogal.

I did want to add a few key elements to my particular case. My attorney repeatedly told me that the defendant did not want to face trial for fear of his reputation being tarnished as it is critical to him that he keeps the image of an honest businessman rather than the truth that he has conned people numerous times and always managed to never go to trial and settle. I specifically told my attorney that if the mediation does not result in an agreed upon settlement that the defendant honors, I would like to go to trial so that the defendant would be tried on all the counts of our original lawsuit; breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, intentional misrepresentation, fraudulent conveyance, and securities fraud. I never was willing to accept a stipulated judgment which does not make mention of all the complaints he was originally sued for. My attorney made this decision during the second round of mediation without my presence as I live in a different state than where the defendant lives and where the fraud took place. In addition, due to an omission on the deal points that my attorney drafted during the first mediation, the case dragged on for another 6 months with my attorney an the defendant arguing over the intended meaning of that particular deal point.

Bottom line, my attorney dragged this case on for far longer than necessary and because of his errors, there were extra legal fees incurred. In addition, there were two other parties that were conned by the same defendant. They were both represented by a different attorney. Their lawsuits against the defendant started after mine and their case has already been settled/dismissed with no issues. In revieweing my attorneys invoices, there are numerous entries where he spoke with this other attorney who is representing the other two parties conned by the defendant for strategy sessions. I can understand that if they are working together since all three parties (me and the other two) are suing the same person. What I don't understand is why hasn't my attorney been able to achieve the same results. More importantly, the other attorney incurred far less in legal fees for his clients.

One more point of interest, my attorney ran up huge legal fees with discovery and deposition in preparation for the trial and then agreed to a stipulated judgment without my consent. It just doesn't make sense. Why spend all the time and my money doing that and then just agreeing to a stipulated judgment. The defendant is not worried about a stipulated judgment because it's not an admission of guilt for the complaints/crimes he actually committed. Don't I have any rights in this matter? It's just very frustrating because I know for a fact that he mishandled my case terribly. I also know that if it's me against him in a court of law, they will always side with the attorney.

 

[Rexlan]

Unfortunately you last statement is absolutely correct.

You should have been monitoring your case all along and bringing up these issues timely. Hindsight is always perfect; however, invalid.

Your only recourse now is to file for malpractice and I assure you that will be a monumental task. You can try to resolve some of the things directly with your attorney and see if you can salvage a deal out of it. I believe this to be your best option today.

 

[hartman]

Thank you Rexlan

Rexlan,

Thank you for your opinion and feedback. Your comments are spot on.

The only thing I have learned throughout this entire 2 year ordeal is to never be a client again. 99% of the time, it's a lose/lose. The first lose being that someone cons you and steals your money. The second lose being that you spend all this money going after the person but to no avail.

The legal system in this country is a pure joke. White collar criminals never face any punishment or jail time. One the extreme rare occasion that it does happen, the offenses are so egregious that they are made an example of; Madoff, Kozlowki, Boesky, Milken, etc.

Bottom line, don't waste your time throwing good money after bad. The only one that benefits are the attorneys and the clients just keep bleeding money.