Posted: 5/15/2009 3:44:42 PM EDT
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Hi ARFCOM legal minds, have a question for you all. A friend has been in a legal suit with their business for about a month now, hiring a single attorney at the firm. However in the course of all this, the attorney brought on someone else(without any indication that they would be paying more for this person, just that they were helping out). They are now charging for this extra person(basically 3x the expected fee now). What actions can we take, as this seems to be a rediculously high overbill case. If you have any questions as to the situation, I'll try to respond as quickly as possible with more details as they come.
-TS |
| DId the lawyer discuss it with the client first, if not, then the client needs to call him on it. If it's because the lawyer doesn't have the knowledge of that particuliar type of suit then can him and find someone else that does. THe client needs to look over his agreement and see what it says. |
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Quoted:
DId the lawyer discuss it with the client first, if not, then the client needs to call him on it. If it's because the lawyer doesn't have the knowledge of that particuliar type of suit then can him and find someone else that does. THe client needs to look over his agreement and see what it says. your last sentence is the correct answer. most retainer agreements, especially in firms, state that other members of the firm, both attorneys and legal secretaries, may work on the case. rarely do retainer agreements allow the attorney to bring in outside counsel w/o first notifying and discussing it w/ the client. the fact we are missing is whether the 2nd attorney is indeed a member of the firm w/ the first attorney. |
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If more than 1 atty is going to working on a matter, or if non-attorneys' work is going to be billed (paralegal, secretary, etc.) then that should be disclosed in the written fee agreement. If the attorneys bill at different rates, then those rates should be disclosed in the fee agreement. Most states require the disclosure of fees to be in writing.
You need to look at the written fee agreement (if there is one). Some firm's fee agreements are 1 paragraph, others, like ours, are 3-4 pages. |