My spouses lawyer turned a forensic divorce case into a personal billing machine for him and his experts. he refused to answer our original simple question when we suggested settlement. The question was: Where do you expect the defendant (me) get all this money you are asking for. How do you expect us to borrow or secure funding. After millions in fees, my wife settled for close to the original offer I made after 6 years of fighting. Not 4x that. Is there an ethics case here.
I'm not sure it is an ethical violation for an attorney if a client refuses to settle. even if after the litigation, the settlement was close to or even the same as what was first offered, that is not necessarily the result of some violation of the attorney. Many times the amount that a case should be settled for cannot be determined until there is some discovery of issues. But you should contact the attorney ethics Board in the county in which the matter w as heard if you think there was an ethics violation.
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