Divorce Attorney Fees
Q.My divorce attorney is going before the Supreme Court to argue my case. Last week he announced that he and a colleague are going to prepare for their presentation by reviewing every case that the opposition has cited in their brief. His e-mail said they would be preparaing "during the next two weeks..." I did the math and figured that these two attorneys could burn through $40,000 in that time. I replied that I would like the Supreme Court preparation to cost no more than $5,000. My attorney replied that he could not be limited by any dollar amount -- that he could not go before the Supreme Court and say, in response to a Justice's question "I did not have time to look into that case, Your Honor, because my client would not pay for my preparation." In email again, I told my attorney that I would not give him a blank check Several questions: 1) Is it unreasonable, for me to limit his preparation time? 2) Is he being irresponsible, in refusing to respond to repeated entreaties to discuss this? (I'm on my cell phone all the time, and e-mail is always on). 3) Do I have grounds for refusing to pay, if I submit a letter to his accounting department saying that I will not be responsible for more than $5,000 on this particular project? 4) Any general advice?
A.1) Yes. The right way to handle that sort of limitation is get estimates at the time of retaining the attorney for the appeal, and shop around until you find one who will accept your limitations on costs. It is not reasonable to wait until the appeal hearing is pending and then decide on limiting the billable time. It's too late now, because the attorney has a certain amount of work that must be done to avoid negligence. 2) Yes, the attorney is obligated to communicate with you. But how much billable time do you think the attorney should spend returning your calls after you have told them that you will never pay more than $5,000 on the billing that you estimate could be $40,000? 3) Probably. You are refusing to pay someone for work that the person must do in order to avoid being sued for negligence. The attorney can't quit before the appeal hearing because the court wouldn't approve the withdrawal. So, yes, you probably would win if they sue you for payment above the $5,000. 4) You will not have this same attorney after the appeal, of course. Because, they will not be able to collect from you for work done on the appeal. After the appeal hearing, they will be able to withdraw, by a motion to the court while no hearing is pending. That will give you another opportunity to shop around. I'm not saying you are not being gouged. That's possible. I don't know enough about the work done which used up $45,000. If you are being gouged, you should get a new attorney. If that's the situation, it won't get better, and you won't be able to control the gouging by dollar limitations.
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