[gwop]

DHS started investigating the validity of my marriage because 18 months after we got married my wife had an affair, got pregnant and decided to leave me. After having interviewed neighbors, and my wife's friends and family the Immigration Officer asked us to go meet with him to "give our side of the story."

The retainer fee to get legal represent for both my wife and I during this ICE investigation was agreed to $8,000 of which I paid the first half after our initial consultation and the remaining balance was due yesterday. Yet, I was advised to cancel the meeting with the Immigration Officer and to let him know I was hiring a Lawyer and that all further communication should have been in writing and through him.

Ironically, the moment I paid the first half of the retainer fee everything went quiet and we never heard back from the Officer. I contacted my Lawyer about 10 days ago asking if there had been any developments, and got no response. I was supposed to fly home on Aug 15th and have not been able to buy my ticket yet because when I asked him if he could find out if the investigation was still open or if I could buy my ticket, he just told me, "I would wait another week" so he didn't even pick up the phone and made that one phone call I asked him to.. . In other words, the guy literally pocketed my first $4000 without moving a finger or saying a word.. . He doesn't even know if the investigation is still open, but he sure sent me a text yesterday reminding me that final payments were due.

Am I really supposed to give him the other half? Should I ask him to show me what he's been doing for me, which is nothing as far as I know? The retainer letter I signed simply states that if I fail to meet the payment schedule he will be free to withdraw as my attorney. I don't know how to address this, but I also don't want to necessarily throw $8000 away, when the immigration officer may have already closed the case. Plus now the airfares have skyrocketed to three times the prices I had originally found so I can add that to the money I'm losing in legal fees. Any suggestion?

[Fr_Chuck]

A "retainer" is normally a fee paid, that is applied to actual costs, and if not used, balance refunded. So the written agreement with the attorney, what does it say

[gwop]

Considering the dollar amounts are to be multiplied by two since we got two separate identical letters to sign, it states:

"This letter will confirm that you have retained my legal services to represent you during the investigation by ICE into your marriage. As was discussed the fee for this matter is $4,000. If this matter results in a criminal investigation there may be further fees incurred. You are also responsible for all disbursements including private investigator fees and any court costs. No disbursement will be made without your prior approval.

You have paid an initial retainer of $2,000.00 and agree to pay the remainder by August 5, 2011. If you do not meet this payment schedule I will be free to withdraw as your attorney.

If you agree with this retainer agreement please sign. . ."

[NYcityboy]

What stage is your permanent residency in? Have you been to the Field Office interview, had your conditional PR granted? You can always check with ICE on your own, but be careful of any information you provide. Take careful notes of what you say to give to your attorney.

If you are not pleased or comfortable with your attorney, you can call him for an update on the case and an accounting of the legal work done to date. If you are very unhappy, request a refund of the paid fees, less any amount for completed legal services. Check your state bar for the process to file a complaint or a grievance.

I don't know the facts of the case, or number of people involved in the investigation, but for $8000 you should be getting a high level of technical expertise and good service.

[gwop]

I tried updating my question above instead of adding an "answer" myself, but it got cut short. I was saying that if you look at my first question to this Forum from a month ago, it gives a little background and explains what led us here.

As far as the retainer fee, I realized as I was typing this that it was a total scam. I contacted these Attorneys the day before our scheduled meeting with the Immigration Officer who had been investigating our case, we cancelled the meeting and instead went and signed the retainer letters and paid the first $4000. The letter states that the $8000 would only cover their services “during the investigation by ICE” and that "If this matter results in a criminal investigation there may be further fees incurred." However, the investigation ended on that morning when we didn't show up to the meeting. They had been doing their research and as a last thing they scheduled the meeting with us. In fact, when I called the Officer informing him we would not attend, he said, "fine I'll see you in Court then!"

Almost four weeks have gone by with no contact from ICE and my understanding is that two are the possibilities at this point. They either realized they didn't have a case and are closing the investigation or, on the contrary, they are preparing their case to take us to Court. Am I correct?

Either way, the $8000 retainer fee would not cover us from this point on and we would have to incur additional costs/fees, while the Attorneys were trying to pocket my first $8000 just like that.

So at this point I would appreciate if you could suggest the proper wording to request an itemized list of work done and to be subtracted to the refund of the first $4000 I paid.

At last I wonder if according to your experience this 4-week period of silence can be indicative of the result one way or the other. Meaning, shouldn't we have been informed if the case was dropped? Or Wouldn't they have already arrested us by now if they were actually proceeding with a criminal investigation?

Thank you so much for your insight and "unconditional" support. Now that I realized that I can't even trust the Attorney I paid to work for me, the free advice I get from total strangers means that much more to me. Cheers!