I received a letter from my lawyer in December of 2000 and attached was a bill. At that time I was unemployed and did not have the money to fly up to New York. I asked him to request a postponement. He was adament about requesting one. It was not till I received the default judgement that the Hearing examiner stated that the postponement was denied and that I was awear of 9 previous postponements, and I failed to cooroporate with council.
According to the transcript I received, from the default hearing, was when he requested the postponement. And at that time he stated that I relived him and was not cooperating with him.
In the year 2000 I warned hih that if the communication issue did not improve that I would relive him. This did not phase him for there was no communication unless I invoked it....
His bill stated that he attended several court dates. I called the courts for transcripts for the dates he listed on his bill. There was only two dates that he attended court on my behalf. That was the first hearing we went to and the default hearing.
In all this time he failed to aprise the court of my current address, voluntary child support payments I made and other factors.
I never received any correspondence from this lawyer that was mailed by return receipt or other forms of proof that he sent me anything. The contract I signed with him, I never received a formal copy with both of our signatures!
I had mailed him three finicial doucments with a return receipt request. I received the return receipt in the mail. I waited a week and called him. I asked him if he received the package, he stated that he had not. At that point I faxed him the paperwork minutes after the phone call. I even called him to ensure that he received it.
I had a standing problem with my lawyer regarding comunications. I rarely knew what was happening with my case. His wife ran the office and I did not know this till months after.
One thing I wanted was for him to obtain a divorce as soon as possible, yet he stated that he wanted to settle issues within the family court. This was another issue we had. I had met with him in his office on a Saturday and stated that my X and I had an agreement and wanted to get the divorce over with. He verbally stated it would be delivered the following Tuesday. Instead it took him several weeks to deliver a draft copy, not a formal/final divorce doucment, a draft copy.
this whole thing is such a mess.
