Q: My husband tried to commit suicided, was taken to hospital and transferred to a inpatient mental intuition.
He was there not at will for a week, he got out, mental unstable and went and filed for divorce 7 days after getting out of intuition , he told the attorney he had just gotten out of mental intuition and was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and manic bipolar. he told the attorney this, the attorney took him as a client regarding this and took a check for $8000. My husband as no remembrance of even meeting the attorney. He has reached out to attorney once he found the agreement for services, which he does not remember. The attorney said he would dismiss the case and look at refunding the money. Its been weeks now, we call daily and never get a call back. I feel my husband was taken advantage of, the attorney practiced unethical conduct. Am i right?
A:
Hard to say with what you present. Attorneys are not doctors or mental health professionals; I can only assume your husband presented "normally", and even stating all his mental health issues would not alone require an attorney to decline representation.
At this juncture, you have a contract issue: The attorney offered representation, your husband accepted it by paying the $8,000, and it sounds like, based on what you're saying, the attorney did some work, and is now complying with the instructions to dismiss the case. How soon should the remaining retainer be returned is an open question; there's no hard or fast rule about timeliness, and I would not expect it before the attorney closes the case with the court, so some of it is the court's timeline as well.
I think you should stay on it, of course, until you receive the refund and confirmation. Not sure if you need to be calling daily, but perhaps once a week or every two weeks just to keep things top of mind.
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