A few years ago, my mother contacted a lawyer to help her with some issues concerning her job. The details aren’t really all that important. Anyways, she had an initial consultation with the lawyer and a few other meetings with him. Basically, he ended up doing nothing for her. She soon realized this and ended up resolving the problem on her own. She soon received a bill from him for over $1000 for his services. At the time, my parents were having some monetary issues (partially due to my mother’s problem with her job that the lawyer did not help resolve). They contacted him and they agreed that they would pay $15 or $20 a month, or whatever they could afford. A few years have gone by, and today my mother received a notice basically saying “Pay up the balance or we’re going to sue you.”
My mother never signed a contract with this lawyer because she was never sent one, despite the fact that she asked him for one numerous times. Is she legally responsible for paying him for the services he can’t prove he rendered, and which accomplished nothing?
I’m sure laws on this sort of thing vary from state to state, but I’d be interested in hearing from anybody who has had experiences with this sort of thing.
IANAL, but I worked for many years as a consultant on an hourly fee, for many clients. Most of the time there were no written contracts, and often enough, really no verbal contracts. My own experience was that litigation based on written contracts is a piece of cake, but that pursuit of resolution based on verbal, or absent, contracts is much more problematic for the collector.
One thing to keep in mind is that any written communication between your mom and the attorney might possibly be construed as a contract. Another thing to keep in mind is that, in my experience, few attorneys are going to actually pursue litigation for a sum that is (by now, I presume) less than a thousand dollars, but most will attempt the known to be effective intimidation tactic before just blowing it off.
even if there was no contract PRIOR to the agreement to make monthly payments, the agreement to make the payments could (easily) be construed as acknowledgement of the debt.
You say ‘a few years’ THIS IS IMPORTANT - there IS a statute of limitations on such agreements (in CA, it is 4 years from date of last (in this case) payment). Once the limit has expired, the court will not grant judgement - if you want to be nice, you can pay - OR you can tell them to go take…
From whom did the ‘pay up or we sue’ letter come? If it was a collection agency, forget it:
a. they will not sue
b. if they do, simply use discovery to establish that they do not have sufficient proof of a debt - see any local atty. for specifics re. your jurisdiction.
If it came from the atty involved, check the statute of limitations, then (if it has not expired) consider if he/she is likely to actually pursue a case - if he/she can find real work, this case is not worth the exposure. AGAIN - see local atty.
BOTTOM LINE -
wait 30 days. Keep all papers, including the nasty letters - if this is a collection agency (if they do not specify that they are lawyers, it is safe to assume that they ARE an agency) they will send nasty letters (3-5 total) before selling the ‘debt’ to the next agency down the line.
Maybe most attorneys aren’t as sloppy dealing with the money they are owed.
With very few exceptions, Mrs. Tonk’s clients pay her up front. On the rare occasion she does offer someone credit, she’s prepared to never see the rest of it, and she’s only been burned once.
If this clown is chasing down such a **relatively **small debt that’s a few years old, it tells me that he isn’t really busy doing more profitable work.
This is not legal advice. That said, I’d have your mother write a letter denying she owes anything and asking the lawyer to send her an itemized bill for alleged work done.
Then – There should be a state Bar in your mother’s state that handles the public’s complaints about attorneys. Your mother can contact them and complain about the lawyer. Generally they will send an inquiry to that lawyer. Sometimes that makes the attorney back off. Hope this helps.
Many states now require a written contract between attorneys and clients (see for example California, which has a few exceptions, none of which look to apply here).
However, as a previous poster did note, the agreement to pay over time certainly could be construed as acknowledgement that you had a valid contract and owed the money. This is both sword and shield; the “contract” to pay in installments probably could not reasonably be construed to allow the attorney to suddenly require payment of the balance.
Any time you have reason to believe that an attorney is not behaving professionally, you should at least talk to the body that governs and monitors attorney performance. For some states, that will be the Bar Association (e.g California), for others it will be an organ of the state Supreme Court (e.g. Ohio).
Is she legally responsible for paying? Probably, since he did perform work on her behalf, with her consent. As other people pointed out, the lack of a written contract usually doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay for services rendered.
On the other hand, some states require written retainer agreements between lawyers and clients. If you live in one of those states, you might have more leverage.
The reality is that there’s a decenct chance she won’t be sued if she doesn’t pay. See, when attorneys sue for their fees, a lot of clients counter-claim for malpractice. This means that the attorney must notify his malpractice carrier, and it’s a big headache. The upshot of this is that attorneys are reluctant to sue non-paying clients for their fees, especially if it’s not a very big fee.
Your mother might consider doing this: Call the attorney sweet as pie, tell him that she has been paying money all along, but that she wasn’t really satisfied with the services she received, can we just forget about the rest of the bill . . .
(As an attorney, I can tell you that, as a first step, it’s almost always best to ask nicely for whatever it is you want.)
A more aggressive strategy would be for your mother to write back, say that she is evaluating the bill, and ask for copies of all the papers in her file. If she really is unhappy with the services, looking at the file might help her decide if the bill is justified. Besides, professionals get nervous when clients start asking for their records.
The vast majority of attorney discipline cases arise from the attorney’s failure to properly handle, and account for, money - either comingling earned fees and trust money, failure to promptly disburse settlements, failure to adequately document trust account transactions… etc.
Once the Bar investigators start something, like an audit, it’s a nightmare for the ill-prepared attorney.
With this in mind, the threat of complaining to the bar is a good one. A lawyer is forbidden from charging exorbitantl fees. Your mom is perfectly free, even now, to request a copy of an itemized bill. Although his claim against her might be held up if he sues her now, just because she’s been paying all this time, the Bar might not look as favorably on the deal.
And he has every reason to avoid that scrutiny, it sounds like.
So I’d urge you to urge your mom to request an itemized bill, and mention that she’s planning to talk to the disciplinary committee of the state bar.
See if accomodations can’t be reached.
This is not intended as legal advice. For legal advice, contact an attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction.
Because I was in bed and asleep, of course! What is this: 24-hour-laws-o-rama??
I can’t really contibute to the discussion, since I don’t know anything about the laws governing lawyers fees in the U.S. However, reading the posts prompts me to ask a question: in the states, does the client have the right to have the lawyer’s bill taxed by a court official?
The reason I ask is that in Canada, under the provincial laws governing the legal profession, the client has the right to apply to the court to review the lawyer’s bill, in a process called “taxation of the account.” The client makes the request, and both the lawyer and the client go to the court house and sit down with the local registrar/prothonotary/clerk of the court.
The court official then goes through the bill, item-by-item. The lawyer has to justify each item, and the client gets to argue why an item is inappropriate or the fee for the item is too high. The court official has the power to add or subtract from the bill, as seems appropriate. (In practice, a bill is almost always reduced in the taxation process.) If either party is dissatisfied with the officer’s decision, an appeal then usually lies to a judge of the court in chambers. If there is an appeal, it’s normally kept pretty informal, so that the client can make their case to the judge without feeling intimidated.
This process flows from the fact that all lawyers are officers of the court, which gives the court the power to supervise them, including their bills.
Not as such. However, there are quite a few situations when your bill would be reviewed and approved by the courts by matter of statute, as opposed to client request. Examples include (1) probate courts, which typically review and approve the fees charged to executors, guardians ad litem, etc., (2) U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which approves the fees paid by a debtor, (3) Common Pleas courts, when the attorney defends an indigent criminal and the state picks up the tab, and (4) any sort of work as special counsel for government entities, who usually audit bills pretty carefully.
By the way, the term “prothonotary” has always made me giggle.
