QUESTION
What can be done if we paid attorney $4200 and after 2 visits to my brother in prison, he said that our money is gone?
Asked on Mar 26th, 2017 on Personal Injury - California
More details to this question:
My grieving saved $4200 walked in an attorney's office for an appointment. We waited an hour he never showed then did a phone interview. He told us he could not help us without money. My mom who did not know better handed his secretary $4000. He never had us sign a retainer agreement. He said he would go visit my brother in prison. I asked him why when he could call him with a legal call. His response was he didn't want to talk about case on phone. He hired him to look into new evidence from a declaration we had from witness. After she went in his office and did an audio statement how DA offered her a deal on prior felonies to testify against my brother. Well, he wrote up the interview and omitted all the important information to help my brother’s case and now won't talk to us. He finally called yesterday. He was very rude when I asked for an itemized bill of so far occurring charges. He was rude and said he is taking me to collections. I had just given him $200 more. He said that because he drove 8 hours on 2 visits with my brother our $4200 was gone. He has done nothing during the visits with my brother but he took his paperwork and told me that I cannot have a copy of audio interview with witness nor I can have his paperwork back until we pay our bill. We gave him $4200 and he has done nothing. He said he been working in the county for 30 years and the witness is a liar. The DA does not do stuff like offer deals for testimonies. My brother has been gone for 15 years. The attorney took our money and ran. My mom is sick and has not stopped crying over this. Myself as well. Me or my mom did not know our rights, being desperate to bring my brother home. He seen us coming and took advantage of us. $4200 gone from a 6-hour road trip. This is so devastating. We don't know what to do. This does not seem right. My concern is we never signed anything. He left us waiting in his office 2 hours and never showed.
1 ANSWER
It is somewhat difficult to determine what the actual facts of your brother's case is. You said the attorney made you wait an hour in his office, but later say two. That all the attorney has done was make an 8 hour road trip, but then it was 6 hours. Your brother has been in jail for 15 years but at this late point you are trying to gather evidence, which is what is done before any trial of the case; your mother is very worried, but that again is something that usually happens shortly after an arrest, not 15 years later. You paid $4,200 but the attorney is now claiming you owe even more. The attorney interviewed the witness who lied as to what the DA has promised her [so why would he use her?] and he wrote out what she said but ignored what was helpful for your brother [then what was it that he wrote down?]. I can not really figure out what is going on. You need to sit down and carefully write out, in proper time sequence, what has happened and what you want done. If the attorney promised to handle the case based upon the number of hours worked [it is reasonable that he would want to speak in person with your brother and not do so on a telephone line that the guards are listening to], you are fully entitled to a breakdown of the number of hours worked. In any case, you are entitled to a full accounting from the attorney. demand that he give you the entire file and an accounting, or you will have no choice but to go to the state bar since he has provided no reason for not giving over that material. You then have to go to other attorneys with your date/action list and summary of what is in the file, and find out if they can help you.
Answered on Jun 20th, 2017 at 7:57 AM