NBR: attorney billing question
NicoleWI
member
DH and I need to do estate planning.
He owns a business w/ his brother.
A year ago, we met with an attorney once, she sent a list of questions, and we I had one phone conversation with her. i sent back choices for various things (trustee, power of attorney, guardians, etc) and also questions that we didn't get resolved because she then recommended we put things on hold to wait for DH to settle his business succession plans. I never heard from her after that. I got back in touch with her a couple months ago, which I'm regretting. Told her we just needed to move ahead w/out DH having his biz stuff done. She said we should meet again in person. We couldn't find a date and I told her we'd have to meet after Thanksgiving. Still haven't heard from her.
We would possibly like to change and start fresh with someone else b/c
1. location is inconvenient for DH, making this even more of an ordeal b/c it's hard for us to meet with her
2. In our contact w/ her so far, we haven't found her to be especially helpful or responsive. We have fairly complicated issues to sort out and she was not making anything more clear. She doesn't seem to need/want our business.
3. She's really expensive (big firm--chosen due to our messy issues w/ DH's business) and so far I'm not seeing cost/benefit analysis coming out in our favor.
How many hours do you think I'd owe her for if we just started over w/ someone else? And, do you think it's dumb to start over since she already talked to us, sent us questions, and is familiar with the general situation? Would we be better off just seeing this through and wrapping it up?
Re: NBR: attorney billing question
She may not have been able to make things more clear because there was either information she was missing, or your husband's succession plans with the business were such a huge deal that she couldn't really move forward without it. Since the "bed side manner" of attorneys really varies, she may have communicated those issues with you very poorly. I know that when I'm working with a client, I do not do anything with their transactions until I hear from them with responses to specific requests for information because I don't want to run up their bill, but I tell them this so they know what I am and am not doing.
Have you given her a retainer? Has she given you a bill for the work she's done? I would ask her for that and see where you stand in terms of owed money, and then make decisions from there. If the amount is unreasonable to you, especially since you haven't received any type of work product from her, try to negotiate it down. If it's just a matter of a couple of hours (which it sounds like it probably is), it may be worth it to just pay and find another attorney. You deserve to be satisfied with your legal counsel.
I'm not an estate planning attorney, but as an attorney, I can say you owe her for what you agreed to pay her when you first retained her. You should have some sort of contract which spells this out. Most likely you owe her for every hour you worked with her, including telephone calls and emails.
There probably will be some duplication of efforts if you switch attorneys now, so I'd be prepared for that, but it also sounds like you are at a preliminary stage with this attorney, so I don't think it would be really dumb to start over at this point. I'd try to look past the likeability factor and focus on competence - will she do a good job for you? If so, I'd stick with her. Only if you can afford her though, and you mentioned she is expensive. The lack of responsiveness is annoying, I agree. As an attorney, I try to respond to my clients immediately.
I'm not being much help, sorry. Good luck!
I'm a CPA, but we still bill by the hour so I'm familiar with all this. Maybe it's slightly different in the atty world, but in my world, if she hasn't sent you a progress bill so far then she's not likely to. If she works for a big firm, your time is sitting on someones WIP and has already been written off or will if you have no further contact with her. We aren't allowed to have unbilled time sit out there that long and I'd bet they aren't either. Unless you paid a retainer that would be in excess of the time already spent in which case you wouldn't get a bill.
I'd think in WI a partner in a law firm would be in the $350 range and a junior atty would be $180 so she's probably in the middle.
I have the same questions as pp, do you have a fee agreement with her? Did you pay her a retainer? In my practice, which is not estate planning, but we do bill hourly rather than taking a contingency fee, the initial consultation is free, and anything done after that has to have a written fee agreement in place and the client is billed monthly. I would get some referrals for someone else to assist you based on your comment #2. If she was really good the location wouldn't be a big deal to me, nor would the cost IF I felt like I was getting my money's worth. Consider that in some cases its actually cheaper to pay a competent attorney $350 per hour, than to pay someone who is inexperienced $200 per hour, if they spend twice the time to get the job done or bungle it along the way. All that said, personally, I would not hesitate to pull the plug on her if she's not answering your questions or being responsive. Check with your local county bar association for a referral service, or you can ask any local parenting groups if they have a recommendation for a good estate planning person. GL.