There is an appeals, so if I win the appeals, if I'm understanding you correctly, I might have a case for a malicious prosecution? I'm not 100% certain whether the case law cited above is always taken as precedent (bc I don't know how case law functions, precisely in the legal system). If so...
This is where the difficulty lies. I think I technically "lost" because the judge wrote the judgment as awarding them 5k, but he made it clear (and as I mentioned, I have the recording) that he meant that he was ruling they are entitled to 5k *total* for the work they completed, not the retainer...
The attorney himself reduced his fees from something like 18k total to 5k, which the judge agreed with. There was no litigation. Work product did not in any way justify the fees. I'm asking about whether there's a case for malicious prosecution, not the merits or demerits of the fee dispute...
Out of curiosity, what would damages ordinarily entail? Does the stress of litigation, having libelous claims made about me, etc, count? Also, thanks very much for that case law. It's very helpful.
The retainer was to be drawn against. I was billed much more than the original retainer - more than twice, in fact, without any warning. The attorney did testify at the small claims hearing that he could exhaust the retainer and bill above it without warning. My understanding is that that is...
A lawyer I retained kept a 9k retainer I had paid him, then later on took me to small claims court for 5k. (He had billed me a total of 20k and at some point after I ended the representation offered to reduce the bill to 15k.) Obviously, I assumed he was therefore trying to collect a total of...