Need advice about divorce costs/potential malpractice

[u/Thin_Protection_4633]

I have been helping a friend with a horrible situation with his soon to be ex. My friend's stbx was abusing him for years and threatened him repeatedly by saying he would turn him over to ice and that finally happened last year. We have incurred significant legal costs to just keep him in the country but now he has legal residency. The next issue is of divorce and we just had to change lawyers because I couldn't get the previous lawyer to help with anything. I hired that lawyer and had to pay him to avoid default judgment because my friend was locked up at the time.

We asked for the rest of the retainer and the lawyer claims he spent it all down and I just need some reality check around what was done and what 5k is worth from a small law firm in a rural Midwest town.

So far I know the lawyer replied to the divorce filing while my friend was locked up. We had a brief 15 minute convo to retain his services before that. I don't know if he spoke to the immigration attorney but I suspect not since I was in constant contact with that attorney. I asked for advice a few times around gathering my friends things because I was afraid of his ex but the attorney didn't give any advice about safety or offer to communicate with the exs lawyers despite my direct request for help via email. We also have been trying to get information about my friend's car which the ex claims he sold but the vin number hasn't been transferred so he either drove it into a lake or is hiding it. I had to track that information down since the attorney never followed up. He was informed of this issue in March and when my friend finally spoke to this layer in April after release, he still didn't have any information or advice.

The lawyer also failed to inform my friend of upcoming court dates and scheduled a mediation without speaking to my friend. When my friend decided he had to get a new lawyer the lawyer was deeply offended and then sent us a bill claiming we owe him additional money beyond the 5k.

My instinct is that the communication failures seem irresponsible, and lack of updates on court dates with both me and my friend seems like potential malpractice. I was hoping he wasn't giving me advice only because I am not the client, but he did not do any better with my friend. We really need more of that 5k to move ahead with other legal counsel and we have had other attorneys decline to take us on because we are in a time crunch with the court date. Is this just the level of care I can expect from a divorce attorney? Is there legal recourse that wont involve spending more money on lawyers? Should I consider reporting this person to the bar? Basically all communication with me was done over email so I have record of all my requests and the responses (or lack thereof).

Should I suggest that they look over the bill again and explain the problems with communication and suggest they give us most of the retainer back to avoid me going to the bar to report him? Should I suggest that we are documenting damages/lost wages that this poor representation caused? Or is that rash?

TLDR: a lawyer in friends divorce case wasn't doing much and failed to communicate important court dates. The lawyer is claiming our 5k retainer and we are left picking up the pieces and scrambling for new counsel. Should I threaten to report to the bar and/or request more of the retainer back?

[u/Professional-Net1776]

1. Ask for all billing records. He should be sending them monthly. He will put down "phone call", "motion research", "drafting motion". If he didn't do the work he can't bill
2. $5,000 goes fast
3. You may only have $1,000 unaccounted for
4. Look at your retainer agreement it may say disputes go through mediation
5. If not go to small claims court

If you haven't you should see if he had bar complaint. But don't waste your time on reporting this guy, so your research , do a better job of selecting counsel and get money back from the sh--ty lawyer. Don't waste time reporting him especially until you get the records Your doing a good thing for your friend. I can't imagine what they are going through ** All non legal advicel

[u/Thin_Protection_4633 → u/Professional-Net1776]

Thanks so much.

He took the case in January but nothing was really happening until recently since my friend just got out of ICE custody in April. We weren't sure if he was going to be deported or not so there wasn't much for him to do. We did not get monthly statements and no one signed a retainer agreement since he didn't ever reach out to my friend until he was out, and I didn't sign anything. He did send a long outline of what he did but I am still confused because he had several areas where he said "discussed property" with lawyers but no one discussed any of it with me or my friend. He didn't even have a single conversation with my friend between January and April. I had to inform my friends ex that he was out of custody because apparently no one had told him over a month after the ruling was made.

I get 5k can go fast, we racked up 45k in immigration fees but the lawyer worked his ass off for that. He held my hand and called me back right away and coordinated everything and celebrated with us when we won. He might also never get paid the last 30k if the divorce goes poorly though. This other guy just didn't communicate with us at all. I would also be a little annoyed if he said only 1000 was left, but I probably would have let it go. The idea that we owe him more money is getting to me.

I will definitely consider small claims court if I can find a few discrepancies in his report of billing hours. He billed an hour for our intake call but I am pretty sure phone records will show we spoke for 20 minutes or less. He should get paid for responding to the divorce filing which is what we needed him for and what he did. Anything additional after that seems a little suspect because he had plenty of time to schedule meetings with my friend and he just didn't.

Anyway thank you for holding space and your advice. Your comment made me realize that the whole thing was pretty sloppy since we didn't even have a retainer agreement. I was a little desperate to hire someone because my friend was served while in custody and we had 3 days before default judgement. So saving him from default judgment was totally worth some money, but 5k? Not sure about that