More details to this question:
My husband and I went to Richard Croak in Albany, NY and sat down with him for a 45 min "free consultation". We felt we were in need of immediate legal counsel after speaking with him and my husband dropped a check to him in person for $2500 that same afternoon. They made copies of our file folder, which contained no more than 150 pieces of paper. The next day we received a letter from the opposing attorney that after reviewing our file more closely the matter was dropped. We immediately contacted Mr. Croak and spoke with his wife Alice who said that she wanted a copy of the letter stating the matter was dropped. I wrote her in a very nice but firm email that we were no longer in need of legal representation and we wanted our retainer refunded. That was two weeks ago, and several phone calls later, no answer. What can and should we do?
1 ANSWER
John J. Carney
You should have gotten a retainer agreement which spells out the terms of representation. It must be in writing for cases over $2,000 and have an hourly rate. It should say the lawyer will keep all earned funds and return unearned funds if you choose to retain another lawyer. If the consultation was "free" and that is clear then the lawyer can claim he had to do work on the file before you requested a refund, and you can ask for an itemized bill. I doubt that he did much more than read the 150 pages, but he might have done research or may claim that he did research, made phone calls, etc. You can ask for arbitration in some cities if the lawyer does not return a portion of the money. As far as the lawyer not returning your calls, he is not likely to want to return your money or your calls but be polite and persistent and keep mentioning the words "bar association" and "arbitration". Do not mention a lawyer's name on a public forum and if anything you say is untrue you can be sued for slander or libel, defamation of character, or other civil torts.
Answered on Dec 05th, 2013 at 8:50 PM