Valley Village, CA asked in Child Custody and Legal Malpractice for California

Q: How are fees determined and payed in a legal malpractice lawsuit

Failure to verify attorney of record prior to providing legal advice and attempting to file paperwork.

Failure to file for continuance.

Direction that violated court orders.

Failure to prove an obviously false filing by opposition.

Charging for services without receipts.

Failure to file expected response after charging 9 hrs to develope response.

Infuriating judge who already answered exact same response earlier in the same week resulting in loss of all custodial rights for client.

Improper completion of court documents requiring multiple communication to remove attorney as representative.

Refusal to acknowledge dissatisfaction of client

2 Lawyer Answers

A: You can request fee arbitration by contacting the State Bar. http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Public/Complaints-Claims/Fee-Disputes

You can file a complaint with the State Bar, although this wouldn't necessarily affect fees. http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Public/Complaints-Claims

You can consult with an attorney who practices legal malpractice about pursuing a claim, although it is unclear what your damages are.

1 user found this answer helpful

A: To determine fees would require an evaluation of your retainer agreement, the work that was done, the charges for the work that was done, whether those charges were authorized by your retainer agreement and/or were appropriate, and any offsets to those charges for damage done to your case through negligence.

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