united-states federal-courts legal-fees attorney-fees
Are lawyers allowed to keep charging money after termination?
<p>I was wondering if attorneys are allowed to keep charging money even after termination. The situation is this: a lawyer has been terminated. A new lawyer has been retained and he/she has filed notice of appearance and whatever. If before the previous lawyer shows the client a detailed bill of the charges per hour/min, and charges the client, will they be allowed to continue adding to the charges every though a new lawyer has been retained? The extra charges would be under correspondences where the client may continue to communicate with the lawyer to demand said detailed bill.</p>

<p>My apologies if anything doesn't really make sense. Please advise, thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Yes.</p>

<p>Usually a lawyer can charge until a court formally withdraws him from representing you in a case for representation in that case (even if a new lawyer has entered an appearance and you have fired him).</p>

<p>A terminated lawyer, even after withdrawal, can also charge you for legal fees incurred to collect the lawyer's bill from you if the fee agreement allows him to do so.</p>

<p>Many lawyers don't charge their clients for billing matters, but the law allows lawyers to charge clients for billing matters if their fee agreement says that they can.</p>

<p>The post-termination charges you describe in the question sound like costs of collection of the bill, so they are legal if they are authorized by the fee agreement.</p>
