Should I pay his lack of professionalism?

davidsolomon012

New Member
Jurisdiction
California
My soon to be ex-wife hit me with a divorce lawsuit.
I hired an attorney to represent me as a defendant/respondent.
After many documents scanings and signatures that attorney requested from me, in July of this year attorney filed the judgement with the courts.

4.5 months later the court came back to ask me to file an amended declaration
"re: service of preliminary disclosure as one file is incomplete.
Also, judgement must be full page, you have huge gap at top of forms.
Shrunk documents not accepted per CRC"

Long story short, I hired this attorney to guide me so that I am in compliance with the law and the regulations 100%. To save time and headache.
Obviously, had he filed correctly with the courts the first time round, I would have been divorced by now and not lost 4.5 months and thousands of dollars.

This attorney has sent me a bill for the hours he's worked this year. This bill includes hours he's worked since July aswell. To be clear, by "work" he means the amount of time he's spent reading and reviewing my emails enquiring about the status of this prolonged divorce.

My simple question is.
Given the fact that the court did not accept the filing because of the gap scanned forms, and the incomplete preliminary disclosure, should I pay this attorney for the lack of due diligence on his part?

Thank you!
 
My simple question is.
Given the fact that the court did not accept the filing because of the gap scanned forms, and the incomplete preliminary disclosure, should I pay this attorney for the lack of due diligence on his part?

You are the ONLY human being able to answer the above question.

However, if a person believes he/she has been ineffectively served by her/his attorney, said person COULD do one or two things.

One person might discuss their concerns with the attorney under retainer.

Another person MIGHT simply file a complaint with the agency tasked with overseeing LICENSED attorneys.

In YOUR state, that would be these fine people:

The State Bar of California
...
 
Given the fact that the court did not accept the filing because of the gap scanned forms, and the incomplete preliminary disclosure, should I pay this attorney for the lack of due diligence on his part?

You owe him for the two hours he worked. What you describe was billable.

He should not charge you to correct his errors. Talk to him about it. Can't imagine why you haven't done that instead of asking strangers on the internet to speculate.
 
Obviously, had he filed correctly with the courts the first time round, I would have been divorced by now and not lost 4.5 months and thousands of dollars.

That's likely not true. Divorce packages often sit on judges' desks for several months before getting reviewed and signed.

Given the fact that the court did not accept the filing because of the gap scanned forms, and the incomplete preliminary disclosure, should I pay this attorney for the lack of due diligence on his part?

The attorney is obviously entitled to payment for work done. If you believe you're entitled to a discount or credit on account of a screw up, you should call the attorney to discuss same.
 
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