I was sued once and the Plaintiff made up lies. It cost me $30,000 in attorney fees.
202608
Yup, they had no case but tried anyway.  THEY ended up paying my attorney!
599309
You are in a bind.  If, when, you let the attorney know that you have such a recording, then he or she will be less happy to represent you properly.  On the other hand, when the attorney demands more fees and payments, and you do not come through or balk at paying these, then the attorney can be less than stellar in representing your best interests.  Either way, it is difficult.  No matter, it is common practice that either you pay a flat fee or charges as they happen (like by the hour).  Either way, if the attorney has outside expenses, those are passed along to the client.  This would be true especially for a mediator.
67141
No! The case has been SETTLED. What you can do is try to sue your lawyer for negligence or something to that effect. :)\n\nGood Luck
362011
Personally, I'd just forget about it as far as this client is concerned. (I'm not a lawyer by the way).  There are small claims court systems in most parts of the country, which sounds like a practical approach to your situation, if you feel you want to persue the matter. These systems are specifically tailored for people who have a relatively minor disagreement and need a third party to decide who is right (damaged), and makes a judgement one way or the other.. Costs vary and here anyway, attorneys are not needed.\n\nA business person to a business person, I might encourage you to rethink your admission policy so that your new clients pay you a two week deposit so that you could avoid this situation in the future.  Good Luck
292994
You have to consult with a lawyer.  Generally, if they take your case, you will not have to pay any fees, because they will expect to get money for you from suing an insurance company.
349959
Depends on the nature of the proof. You can ask for the money. If that doesn't work, small claims court is available. Costs about $20 plus getting the summons served. But you can add that to the $500. This is an equity court, doesn't need a lawyer.
422121
Unless you signed an agreement stating that the retainer fee was non-refundable, then in most states, the fees are to be placed in a trust account from which the lawyer withdraws money only as he does the work.  \n\nI am not a lawyer, but if I were you, I would write a polite letter thanking the lawyer for his willingness to take the case, but stating that you have decided to make other arrangements, and ask for a refund.\n\nYou could contact the bar association in your state and ask what to do about unused retainer fees not being refunded if this becomes an issue.
429704
Write out a timeline of everything that happened, attach any documentation you have supporting this information and send it with a letter of complaint to the state bar association.  Follow up on a weekly basis by phone & in person.  Eventually, if you make enough of an nuisance of yourself they may bring all the lawyers involved up on charges, either suspend them for a length of time or disbar them, and make them reimburse you the amount of money you lost.\n\nI went through this same type of thing in Louisiana with an attorney who barely got me divorced and never followed up on the property settlement or child support.  He ended up being suspended for two months and reimbursing me half of the $1000.00 I'd paid him.  It took me two years of being persistant with the Louisiana bar to finally get some satifisfaction in this situation but it worked.
21609
find out if there is an attorney who would accept your case on a contingency fee basis; you don't pay your attorney unless he/she wins the case.  negligence has many different aspects.  check with your state bar association for attorneys who will work on cases like these.
127175
First of all, I reccomend you follow your banks advice and cancel the card that is getting charged this monthly fee.  Then have it reissued. It is not difficult, nor is it unpleasent. You just may have to wait a week or two to get your new card in the mail.\n\nNow, I think you should stick up for yourself and get your $60.00 plus any other charges they took from you after you canceled before the 30 day trail period was over. Stop talking to them on the phone, that won't get you anywhere any longer. Find out the address to corperate headquarters and send a registered return receipt required letter, explaining the situation, everything you have done to get this stopped and your money returned. Provide copies of all e-mails justifying your stance that you terminated the service prior to the end of the thirty day trial period. Also, send copies of all e-mail correspondance that shows your efforts to resolve this in a civilized manner and the answers you received from their customer service department. Then tell them you want your money returned to you, as you did not use their service after the 30 day trial period and they have been taking payments for services you did not use. Tell them this is the only letter you will send and that if they do not return your money you will take action with small claims. \n\nOften just sending such a letter, with material to back up your claim, (material that will show a judge they have acted wrongly) will get you your money back. If they don't send you your money apply for relief through small claims.\n\nIt is not difficult to file a small claim. You have to first send out a demand letter, which was what you did in the letter I told you to send. Then you fill out some paper work, usually just a small amount, attach all your proof, ie: your e-mails and bank statement showing amounts taken, and then go to the court date. You tell the judge what you said here and show the e-mails and your bank statement showing the amounts taken. The judge will then look at your proof and render a judgement. If you show all documents which prove you closed this account prior to the thirty day free trial, and the amounts they took illigally, you will win and get that money and your filing fee usually fifteen to thirty dollars. \n\nSince this is a large company you will probably get your money back by just sending out your demand letter. These companies do not like going to court. It costs them more to go to courst than to give you your money back. So, don't be intimidated by them. \n\nIt really is easy. Shut that account down, get your card re-issued, send the demand letter with your e-mails showing you terminated prior to the end of the thirty day free trial, and they will send you a check. It is only in rare cases they won't give your money back. They will not give you your money back if you just do nothing. They will also keep taking that monthly fee if you don't close that card down and have it re-issued. They do this as they know a certain number of individuals won't do anything to stop them as they either don't know how or are too intimindated to take proper action.\n\nShow them you are not one of those individuals and you WILL GET ALL YOUR MONEY BACK. Not just stop the charges from continuing.\n\nOH, sorry, to get the paperwork for a small claim action, just go to your closest court house and ask for the paperwork at the clerks office. The paperwork is usually free of charge. There is often instructions on how to fill them out too. If not just fill in the blanks and then write what you said here and attach COPIES of all e-mails and bank statements.
396053
"he who represents himself has a fool for a client"  Mark Twain.\n\nSmall claims court is easy to do without a lawyer.  If you are suing someone for more than the small claims allows, you SHOULD use a lawyer, as not knowing the procedures will no doubt be of substancial handicap.\n\nMost small claims have raised the amounts you can sue for in them.  I believe some are up to 10 thousand dollars.  You can do anything a lawyer can do, if you represent yourself.\n\nSmall claims is essentiall like "the peoples court".  You state your case in front of the judge, and the defendant has the chance to state their case.\n\nYou can file the lawsuit at the county courthouse, and all the forms are self explanatory, and the clerks can aid you in filling them out, as long as you don't request 'legal advice' from them.\n\nIt is fairly inexpensive, usually around 50 dollars to file, and if you win, you get it back from the person you sued.  You will also have to "serve" the defendant.  You don't do this yourself, you pay an 'officer of the court' or the sherrifs office to do this.  It costs around 35-50 dollars.
669117
it depends on what you did and the local law/situation.  contact your attorney and come clean.  if you go to THEM, they may go easier on you.  good luck
610258
If the accident was legit and as you have stated and you haven't made false statements or caused other mitigating circumstances that would have impeded the lawsuit then find another lawyer. There are many hungry lawyers out there that would be glad to pick up the case. Insurance companies for the most part will not pay out unless you retain a lawyer regardless of their legal and moral liability. \n\nWhat makes me question whether you have done something such as admitting fault, lying about the case or signing an agreement with the insurance company without first consulting your attorney is that most attorneys, no matter how successful or busy they are or how little the case may generate will rarely drop a case. Unless your lawyer was just a schmuck.\n\nAlso, you may wish to contact your local bar association. You may have a malpractice case against your lawyer if in fact he did cause you to incur debt and then abandoned your case without cause. There are a lot of bad layers out there.
235468
Attorneys have a fiduciary duty to charge "reasonable" fees. In a criminal defense setting, this means a rate comparable to the rates charged by other attorneys in the same locale, who have similar talent and experience.\n\nA criminal defense attorney cannot charge a contingency, based on performance, because that could have the effect of encouraging the attorney to make misrepresentations to the court in order to improve his/her client's case.\n\nThere are some defense attorneys who will charge a flat fee for a certain type of case, with which they're familiar, because they have a sense of approximately how many hours will be required.\n\nAnd, occasionally, an attorney will do a criminal case free (pro bono publico). But, unless you're seriously down and out and desparate, and you catch the attorney on a good day, I wouldn't count on getting a free ride.\n\nThe only way to get an idea of whether the fee is reasonable is to call a few attorneys and ask what they charge. Don't be afraid to ask what their experience is, but for an expungement motion, it's not really all that complex. \n\nIf you've stayed out of trouble for the statutory time period, you'll have your case sealed. If not, you won't. \n\nI'd estimate no more that 8 hours of billing. Maybe half of that.\n\nGood luck.
371757
Yes...get an attorney!!!!
348260
completecase.com and yes we agreed on everything and for 300.00 they go through a series of questions and give you ALL the paper work you need to file. The state you file in will have different laws about physically appearing in court. Our state required it. We were married 22 yrs so we really didn't want to hurt each other just go our separate ways and it's worked out fine. My ex did have an attorney appear for her and he checked out the paper work and saw nothing wrong and was quite surprised the Internet could do such a comprehensive job
118033
It sounds very messy. I recommed you dont waste any time and get an attorney that is familar with your state's laws.