How to go about/handle this situation?

Greetings, and thank you for your question. You have to understand that lawyers are paid by the hour and the retainer (agreement) has or should have a clause where it states, that the attorney is charged, $X amount for his services, (flat or by the hour) when the retainer is exhausted, the client will be responsible for paying owed balance, or the attorney will charge interest. Sometimes, depending on clients, we as attorneys, when we are not getting paid or we judge the client financial situation is not equipped to handle the balance owed or the expected balance, we either don't take the case and or we simply withdraw from it. Your former attorney feels that the case used up the retainer, and for any further services, you will need to either deposit a new retainer amount or retain on flat-fee services. I believe his $1,500 will cover up to 2 court appearances and the contempt motion.   What can be done now, is to assess the performance of your attorney. If you like how he worked than retain him again. If you are not happy with his performance, and yes, many attorneys purposely drag out a case to continue billing. Assess your financial situation, if you are able to retain an attorney, then please shop around, and you can start with calling my office to discuss our rates. Every attorney is different. Some charge just for charging sake and some are aggressive and results orientated like us, where our performance is justification for our prices. We do have payment plans options for people with good credit and stable income. Feel free to contact my office and speak with my case manager at 877-866-8665 to discuss in more details regarding your case. Thank you.