Florida Legal Malpractice Legal Questions

I think you are simply distorting whatever the facts may actualy be to garner sympathy for your position. That you are elderly, or a cancer survivor, or a vietnam vet or a good christian, or a devout jew, or anything else  stated to invoke sympathy, has ZERO bearing on the legal issues in any case, and is almost always a reciepe for disaster from a defense perspective. Your question is simply replete with slanted facts, which if accepted, must always lead a lawyer to agree thatYOU are the victim and not the Plaintiff. Now, this does NOT mean that the Plaintiff isn't doing the things you state. What I can tell you is that if I had a dollar for every litigant that didnt win in court and spouted off about a conspiracy theory, I'd be a billionaire. Your case revolves around FACTS, if there are lies being told, them you and your lawyer need to ferret out the facts t show this. If you have no money at all to do this, you should consider filing a bankrupty. If you do, but dont want to spend it, thats your choice but the current tact of simply announcing that the other person is a fraud, oh and feel bad for me because I had cancer, wil lnot likely carry they day, as it has not to date. If you cant or dont expose "the truth" then the other sides liars, become the truth, and "fabricated frivolous case" becomes neither. You need to refocus your efforts with your attorney.... Read More

Well all of this revolves around what the fee agreement you have is and what the flat fee covers and the facts at issue. If you were charged a low flat fee with understanding that it was for a very basic low effort uncontested divorce case, and expect 10,000.00 worth of work for a 1,000.00 flat fee...and the one number change is the tenth revision of the document, its one issue. If you paid $10,000.00 a month ago and lawyer is acting like a jerk or asking for more money when he really just started the case yesterday, you should fire him, demand a refund and hire another lawyer.... Read More

You sound like you and the new lawyer are not on the same page. You may need to hire a new lawyer that will work under the terms you describe. Be aware though, that reviewing all the documents as you describe typically causes a substantial increase in legal billing, so as long as you are willing to pay for the added work, communication, discussions, etc.......you should have no problem finding someone. ... Read More

Depends on how all that actually happened. You may have an argument to set aside the judgment if you were not truly afforded due process, etc. Seems inconsistent that you say lawyer never notified court, as he would be lawyer on case until THE COURT lets him out, and there wouldnt likely be notices to your partners directly, if the laywer was still on the case. You need to address this immediately thought.... Read More

Well, it all dependson where and how they are claiming the lien. Oddly, the lawyer may be equally responsible for payment of the lien as he clearly was aware of it and seems ot have ignored it. You may need to hire a lawyer to address this issue and possible make a malpractice claim against the first lawyer if a valid lien exists. ... Read More

Your facts are very confusing, on one hand you state the lawyer was forced to stay on the case, then you speak of the case being dismissed, a second case filed or re-opened, and not really sure what the claim is against the lawyer other than he refused to advance the expenses for the case, which may well be his right, as usually the fees are contingent, not the expeneses/costs. You need a better explanation.... Read More

You can ask, and you should not be charged for services if the lawyer is not representing you at the time the document is filed. That type of notice isnt for your benefit but for the other lawyers and the courts not to schedule things during that time frame. Obviously you have issues with your lawyer. Anytime you feel you lawyer is unethical or "questionable" you need to fire that lawyer and hire one that you trust.... Read More

There is a difference between telling you to lie and disagreeing with your view of who is at fault. To be clear, at least one other person agreed with the lawyers assesssment, the cop. Whether the ticket was thrown out or not is of no consequence, as this could easily have been a techinicality. Adding to this Florida is a comparative negligence state such that many people people may have responsibility for causing an accident by percentage. If you feel strongly that your driver did nothing wrong, by all means you have every right to stand by your convictions. With that right, however, may also come the responsibility for paying your own medical bills because the other person you contend was at fault may not have enough insurance to do so.... Read More

Possibly. Much of what you address may be focused on disclosures and whether you are entitled to rely upon the lawyer for your personal issues vs. his representation of the businsess entity. If you truly have intentions of investigating or pursuing this, you will likely need to hire an attorney at an hourly rate/retainer to assist you. We do provide free consultations for such matters if yo would liek to contact us at 813-877-6442... Read More

This is an interesting issue regarding the interaction of the Baker Act provisions (state law) and the protections of HIPAA, which is preemptive federal law. My recollection is that Baker Act issues are a matter of public information, while the actually medical records themselves may not be. YOu will probably have to hire an attorney to examine this issue with a retainer and payment of an hourly rate to address this issue.... Read More

First, I would not try to fix the situation yourself. As a lay person you will most likely make the problem worse, as will doing nothing. You need to hire a new attorney to pick up where the old one got fired and go from there. Bear in mind though, that if old attorney was giving you either "freind rates" or doing the work for free to help you out, you may have attitional expenses to deal with now.... Read More