What can my daughter do. Her husband(ex-now), petitioned her for divorce and it was final 2 weeks ago. I picked up the bill for her, until I received the last statement from her attorney. I was shocked. The bill more than doubled. Her husband's (ex) was half the cost and he petitioned. He also dealt directly with his attorney on ALL matters. My daughter was almost always directed to her attorneys paralegal. So how can his bill be less than half of hers. I feel she is being railroaded. She has a deadline according to her attorney's paralegal , of Jan. 31st, but yet has received a final bill according to the paralegal. What else could they possibly charge for? The divorce was final 2 weeks ago, and her husband (ex) paid the court costs. Also, what can an attorney legally charge for? Every phone call, every email, etc. etc.? What warrants a complaint to the Tennessee Bar Assoc.

Bonnie56

Bonnie56 writes: "... what can an attorney legally charge for? Every phone call, every email, etc. etc.?



The answer is yes; as someone said, an attorney's time is his stock in trade. That means: interviews, research, drafting pleadings, phone calls, emails, et al. The bar associations try to encourage attorneys to have written agreements with clients covering the scope of work and anticipated costs. Most attorneys charge retainers for this reason: to protect themselves from clients who don't want to pay once the case if over. Your daughter can request an itemized bill from her attorney. Locate a phone number and address for the Tennessee Bar by using Google.

Of couse unless she had a set price going into this, or a agreement to number of hours. They can and do change for every phone call, every letter, all research done by him and his staff, driving time and expenese to drive to the court house for every meeting, all the time he talked to the other attorney, all the copy costs of all the paper work and more.

And your daughter does not have to pay until she receives a final bill, and the attorney needs to be told that you will not pay until you get a final bill.

The cost should have been discussed going in. Some attorneys charge 500 dollars a hour, others charge 100 a hour, some charge same cost for paralegal billing hours and others charge a lower amount for paralegal work. A divorce with many meetings can go up to 10 or 15 thousand dollars very easy.

When I was a paralegal I billed in increments of 10 minutes. I billed for everything... phone calls, copies, postage, mileage to the courthouse and back, etc.

Then the attorney also billed as they had to review everything I had done.

Unfortunately she did not research her attorney well enough. Some do all of the work themselves, thus reducing the cost to the client, while others are busy enough that they have to farm their work out to their paralegals and secretaries (I also billed when I was a secretary before I was a paralegal).

Your daughter is not required to pay for services until the final bill has been received by her. However, it would be in her best interest to begin to make small payments. In this way it may be easier to set up a payment plan with the law firm should she need it.

Is the bill itemized, showing what services were performed and what the charge was for each? An attorney will typically charge for everything they do related to the case at hand, including phone calls, reviewing documents, court time (and time spent travelling to and from court), etc. They will also bill for incidental expenses such as postage, all at a rate of $200-$250 per hour. Usually they'll bill a minimum amount of time for any one particular service. For example, years ago I was a defendant in a child support lawsuit. The attorney who represented me charged $150 per hour and billed me a minimum of 0.2 hours (12 minutes) for any particular service. For example, if I faxed her a document related to my case, when she took the time to review it it cost me 0.2(150) = $30, just for reading a letter! I was also billed for all postage associated with any mailings she had to do on my behalf. Whether your daughter is being "railroaded" is largely a matter of opinion. It is possible that your ex-son-in-law's attorney spent less time on his case than your daughter's attorney (and/or his/her staff) spent on hers. Or his attorney's hourly rate may be less than her's. Either way, I don't think that simply disagreeing with the attorney's fees constitutes grounds for a complaint to the state bar association. After all, the bar association is made up of fellow attorneys so how much sympathy do you really expect to get from complaining about an attorney's fees?