Pondering a thought.....

[jmichael]

My girlfriend was going through a divorce.. Everything was settled and it was just a matter of the judge getting the final papers for his signature. After over a year nothing was being done because her husband was not paying his attorney. Keeping in mind we had paid her attorney in full and was pushing to get this divorce to go through. It was basically one excuse after another. Ohh we filed the papers and the judge rejected them or take your pick of excuses.. Finally after not taking the wait any longer she decided to call the courts directly and find out what was really going on. She was told nothing was ever filed and the judge was getting annoid over the whole situiation and a latter was sent out to the attorneys over a month ago requesting an explination for the delay. Knowing that she immediatly contacted her attorney back up and demanded the papers get filed by the end of the week. (4 days.) Which they were. In the past her attorney said it would take the judge 6-8 weeks to sign the papers the clerk said that is not true it would only take 2-3 days at the most. My question is this... Her attorney obviously delayed this for what ever reason for well over a year and had lied to us continuiously for why it was not done. Are we able to persue any legal action against her attorney for anything.. We do not need money, but we want to make sure this kind of thing does not happen to anyone else again....

James

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by jmichael
My girlfriend was going through a divorce.. Everything was settled and it was just a matter of the judge getting the final papers for his signature. After over a year nothing was being done because her husband was not paying his attorney. Keeping in mind we had paid her attorney in full and was pushing to get this divorce to go through. It was basically one excuse after another. Ohh we filed the papers and the judge rejected them or take your pick of excuses.. Finally after not taking the wait any longer she decided to call the courts directly and find out what was really going on. She was told nothing was ever filed and the judge was getting annoid over the whole situiation and a latter was sent out to the attorneys over a month ago requesting an explination for the delay. Knowing that she immediatly contacted her attorney back up and demanded the papers get filed by the end of the week. (4 days.) Which they were. In the past her attorney said it would take the judge 6-8 weeks to sign the papers the clerk said that is not true it would only take 2-3 days at the most. My question is this... Her attorney obviously delayed this for what ever reason for well over a year and had lied to us continuiously for why it was not done. Are we able to persue any legal action against her attorney for anything.. We do not need money, but we want to make sure this kind of thing does not happen to anyone else again....

There would likely be little money if there was an action -- but we don't know that the attorney purposefully delayed the action with ill will... do we? I would find out why the attorney delayed an action for over a year (if you paid him.) If this irks you terribly and you REALLY feel that there was a wrong (and be VERY CAREFUL because you are dealing with a person's career here) then the appropriate place to voice your opinion would be with the State Bar Association. They take complaints and investigate the attorney's alleged misconduct. Attorneys do get sanctioned and occasionally disbarred as well. But do not act on this unless you are sure of a significant misconduct.

 

[RaisetheBar]

While I agree w/ what the professor said above, the one thing that maybe doesnt quite square is when the professor says "to make sure it's serious" or whatever. This a heavy responsibility for a lay person to know. How is a non laywer to know what is serious or not serious? THe person feels she is wronged and feel he/she has every right to complain.

While it would be great if people only complained about what is serious there is no way for a non lawyer to know if it is or is not.

In Pennsylvania we have seen cases like this where even respected attorneys are quite lazy about filling papers. Not saying it is right, and maybe there is reason to complain. YOu are certainly not the first person this has happened to.

 

[jmichael]

While I have decided not to persue the matter I am still very annoied about the delay and handling of the divorce. But I am left to ponder this question. Why in a carreer choice such as an attorney would you not want to try and better your profession rather then worsten it? What I mean to say if anyone had taken a poll today to ask what is the most hated posistion I would assume that an attorney would rank very high on the list. Now do not get me wrong I have a lot of respect for the amounts of reading and studying attorneys have to do. But it does not excuse the way most attorneys I have ever encountered act. Take another instance of mine. I have 3 judgements on my credit. I was not aware these judgements even existed till 8/2003. I never bothered with credit nor have I ever bothered to check it. But when I realized it was there I immediatly disputed these judgments. Finally after a bit of frustrations I decided to hire an attorney to help me fight these judgements. To fight just 1 judgements an attorney here on Long Island wanted to charge me approx. 10,000.00! What would he/she have to do?! write up appeals and file them with the courts. I already researched and knew the Civil and Social Services laws that were broken, so I just needed them to write it up in legal terms. I tried myself but was rejected and was told to hire an attorney. So after a bit of frustration the Judgements are still there UNLAWFULLY mind you. And no attorney will help me fight them for anything less then 10k! Rediculous! I have a long list of attorney complaints. But that is the most recent one. So I like many others have a very negative opinion of attorneys. But you write back to me saying that I am probably not the only one this has happened too. Like it is a normal practice amoung attorneys to get paid and do as little as possible once the check clears. I am sorry but I find that to be very disturbing....

James

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by RaisetheBar
While I agree w/ what the professor said above, the one thing that maybe doesnt quite square is when the professor says "to make sure it's serious" or whatever. This a heavy responsibility for a lay person to know. How is a non laywer to know what is serious or not serious? THe person feels she is wronged and feel he/she has every right to complain.

I appreciate your comment and certainly everyone has the right to complain but I would hope that they could use good judgement -- and frequently people don't. They will exaggerate or not see things as clearly given the stress. It seems likely that jmichael may have a reasonable complaint but just want him to make sure that he has good cause to go forward and not just out of more frustration.

I deal with people and attorneys all the time who are completely unrealistic as to their deadlines. Sometimes the courts are responsible for the mess and ridiculous delays. Sometimes it's a backlog in the system. Sometimes the attorneys do get delayed like everyone else but the end result isn't delayed excessively.

However, when one complains to the bar or to someone's boss, the impact could be far more troubling than the real amount of damage. They could be making a mountain from a molehill that happens at a difficult time and the result is ruining someone's career when really the wrong was slight, at best.

If you feel strongly about it then writing a letter/complaint to the bar may be appropriate to prevent it from happening again. Make sure you have checked with good sources...

 

[RaisetheBar]

Ummm....First off, JM: if you have any serious type of case for a serious attorney, it's $10,000. Just about all major attorneys working on a serious case are going to ask this much in retainer. Given the free market system, it's difficult to say that this is unethical or illegal, it's just the way it is right now.

There are DUI attorney's who will ask for $5,000 so maybe there are some cases like that, but still....

It's true that you can find totally lazy attorneys, at major law firms! I kid you not. Sometimes some of the biggest most reputable firms, dump stuff on inexperienced attorneys who have no clue and wont do any work.

That is serious and should warrant complaints. Not sure how much effort the bar is putting into this sort of thing, but yes it goes on a lot.

ANd yes, I have seen completely stupid, uncalled for accusations that have derailed attorney's careers for years. Often due to over zealous prosecutors who are looking to find a small time attorney, w/ no large firm to back him up and are looking to score pts. with the public. Yes I hvae seen this happen to.

So yeah, there is a lot of F-ed up stuff that is going on in the law, hopefully more free and open discussions like this one can help out both the public and the practicioners.