Okay, I know you can't make him work if he..

[txmom57]

doesn't want to, but:
If you retain a lawyer, he knows up front you have to pay him out. He still takes your money, files the first set of papers, after that it seems he will not submitt the required subpeonas for the evidence or witnesses to prove your case, His secretary/paralegal has verbally sided with opposing party, to the point you now wonder who they work for, is demanding you bring in 2500.00 before they will do anymore on your behalf. So far, they have done nothing but let the other side walk all over you, and get away with it, second he agreed to let you pay as you could, third he did take a retainer, now my question:
Can they take a retainer, agreeing to work with you, then demand payment in full before they do anything else. The case is not settled, What ever happened to the lawyer you pay representing your interest over the opposing parties interest to the best of their ability, and last can they just quit like that. Now I know if a plumber came to your house and didn't do the plumbing you would be a fool to say, hey its okay, I'll pay you anyway. Can a lawyer sue you for payment for a job he didn't do, didn't complete, his associates having access to priviledged information jumping sides with his knowledge and get a successful judgement against you. Everyone seems to think there is nothing we can do but pay up and find a different attorney.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I hear your frustration and am sorry to hear about it. What exactly is the problem with your attorney? I get the feeling you feel that he won't work until you pay everything up front but you need to let us know what is in your retainer agreement, what report they told you was work done and how your retainer is being used, and what the attorney's response was to your questioning his competence. This is a touchy area and I certainly can see challenges on both sides, you just need to be very clear and this is so tough to do because you're very familiar with your own case.

doesn't want to, but:
If you retain a lawyer, he knows up front you have to pay him out. He still takes your money, files the first set of papers, after that it seems he will not submitt the required subpeonas for the evidence or witnesses to prove your case, His secretary/paralegal has verbally sided with opposing party, to the point you now wonder who they work for, is demanding you bring in 2500.00 before they will do anymore on your behalf. So far, they have done nothing but let the other side walk all over you, and get away with it, second he agreed to let you pay as you could, third he did take a retainer, now my question:
Can they take a retainer, agreeing to work with you, then demand payment in full before they do anything else. The case is not settled, What ever happened to the lawyer you pay representing your interest over the opposing parties interest to the best of their ability, and last can they just quit like that. Now I know if a plumber came to your house and didn't do the plumbing you would be a fool to say, hey its okay, I'll pay you anyway. Can a lawyer sue you for payment for a job he didn't do, didn't complete, his associates having access to priviledged information jumping sides with his knowledge and get a successful judgement against you. Everyone seems to think there is nothing we can do but pay up and find a different attorney.

 

[txmom57]

Okay, I know you can't make

Here's the deal...
my ex- daughter in law, started putting bruises on the 3 yr old grandson's arm this summer, by twisting and squeazing his little arm. This is not the first time nor the last that she has left bruises on him. Since they separated in feb 04, there has been a string of "so called" accidents that has left the child hurt. Not to mention other deviant behavior that goes against social norms. After the third time in as many weeks this past summer of him having these finger prints emblazened on his little arms and coupled with a busted lip, I took him to the police and filed charges. Of course CPS was contacted. About three weeks after the second police report was filed, she failed to be at home to recieve the child back from visitation. The civil standbye we had requested wouldn't wait for her to show up, told us to take the child home. We went through all the right steps,
courthouse, judges office, CPS, and the frantic hunt for a lawyer. Finally found one that said he would work with us financially. We had told him of all that had been going on with the child and other things the mother was doing, had done, etc..
I offered to give him a lein on my home if he would represent my son, in the fight to protect the grandchild from an abusive mother. He refused this saying no need. I asked him how much it would cost so I would know how much I would have to sell off to get the money together. My son lost his job over this as he was not able to take his run, and take care of the child at the same time. Anyhow the lawyer told us, not to worry bring him what I could get ahold of that day. We would be charged 150 an hour. I got him three hundred that day, and asked him just to give me a ball park so I would know what I was looking at. He again stated don't worry about it, we will work with you and let you pay as you can til it is paid off. Well we wrote everything down gave it a full time line as best we could remember with time and dates of all the incidents that lead up to this, laid out in writing what we wanted, and laid out in writing what proof we had and where to obtain the proof supporting our claim. I keep saying our claim, but legally it is my son's claim as in Texas a grandparent has no rights or legal access. I am not an attorney, but do have a degree in criminal justice and took paralegal training years ago. I also have had to do legal research in the past. I helped my son prepare this and listed everything we sought in relief from the courts.
I think the lawyer was offended in a way as he was quick to tell us, He knew what to do and that was what we were paying him for, so be the client and let him be the lawyer. When we got to court the first time, where he should have probably asked for an emergency stay of protection, or a temporary amendmant to the the original custody orders, He didn't even know who we were. He arrives in court late, Okay, so he had another case overlap, and as murphey's law goes...
He sends my son out to talk to her and her lawyer to try to work things out. He doesn't go with my son, My son doesn't want to talk to them without his own witness so he asks me to be there. They don't like this, so they refuse to talk if I'm there. My son gets accused of being unwilling to attempt to mediate.
What is there to mediate when a child is being hurt and neglected. (not mentioning the other behavior)
No protection orders, return the child to her. We do get granted a home study, but we have to pay both sides. As soon as we walk out of the court room, she takes the child and moves 300 miles away. Well come to find out, she was maintaining a gov't apt (her legal residence) here while she absconded with the child, the lawyer claims he filed to have her return the child to this county, but says the judge denied it. Well she is still occupying an apt here, but now we are traveling 200 miles to pick the child up. That was in Sept. In Dec, she moves back here right into the very same apt. She had supposedly moved out of in Sept. Our lawyer done nothing about this, knowing she still had this apt. The home study was a farce and cost us, 900 bucks. Knowing she still had this apt. here and having our main transportation break down, we told her if she wanted the child back she would have to come get him. The para-legal at our lawyers office called, ordering my son to return the woman's child to her. Even told my son, she believed the ex-wife and sided with her. There is a lot I can't put here for obvious reasons, but foremost it would take more than this sight could handle. When my son would try to put distance between him and the ex, not allow her to harass him by not taking her constant calls, she would call the paralegal at our lawyers office and then here would come the call, the paralegal ordering my son to call his ex wife and to work with her. You have to understand the ex is a bonafide psychopath. The paralegal in our lawyers office has belittled my son, told him his ex was an angel, among other things, When the ex attacked my son, on one visitation exchange, the lawyer did nothing, suggested no action to take, he refused to subpeona the police officer to testify, told us to go tell the officer to be in court, There are records that are protected by the privacy act, that we cannot get on our own but have been told by the people with these files all the lawyer has to do is have them subpeonaed and they can turn them over to the courts. The lawyer won't do it. These records are vital to proving this woman has a real extreme anger problem. The lawyer says " just because she does an adult that way, doesn't mean she will do her child that way."
Then we keep checking to see what is going on, we keep getting told we can't go back to court til the home study is complete. Then we find out after the initial interview, the home study person does no more, period and we haven't even gotten back into court and she has a copy of his decission. Our lawyer's office just shrugs this off. In January, she again picks up the child and moves 300 miles away again, leaving all her's and the child's belongings behind in the same gov't apt. She is again living and working down there, ( legal residence here) still abusing the child, and when she failed to have the child at the meeting point on time, Monday, my son called his attorney's office to ask him to file a comtempt of court, he was informed by the paralegal, that there would be no more work done on our behalf til we paid them 2500 dollars. This was not our agreement with the attorney, he has declined to take money when I had some to give him, instructing my son to take care of other things first, My son lost his job over this mess, has only been back to work a short time, we are busy playing catch up with all the bills, and I don't see where they have done a darn thing for him so far, but I truely thought when an attorney accepted a retainer, he had to represent that client to the best of his ability especially knowing up front that our payments would be megar but that we would pay him.

 

[seniorjudge]

Obviously, you need to make sure that when you hire a lawyer, everything is in writing up front.

 

[txmom57]

Obviously, you need to make sure that when you hire a lawyer, everything is in writing up front.

Why do I get the feeling that you are trying to get me riled up instead of carrying on an intelligent conversation. Okay you got me riled on the other question, but in writing or not, there are supposed to be certain ethics that a lawyer is required to uphold and I thought one of them was if he took your money he was supposed to represent you to the best of his ability.

 

[seniorjudge]

I agree with you.

If you feel that your lawyer has done something wrong, you should file a complaint with the state bar.

 

[txmom57]

thank you

I didn't mean to be rude, I do want to thank you for the time and effort of your response. I did ask for it. I just get so frustrated with hitting brick walls. Anyhow thanks again and forgive me for my rudeness.