Texas
Related: About this forumWhen are an attorney's services "finished"?
A relative has this situation: he paid the retainer for his daughter's lawyer in a custody fight. The lawyer had very little contact with the mom, and without her attorney, she ended up signing a custody agreement drawn up by the baby-daddy's attorney. It has been accepted by the court, so it is now an order of the court.
The father (grandfather) would like his money back, less whatever expenses the attorney incurred. He's called, but gotten nowhere.
Any ideas?
elleng
(130,126 posts)If nothing was said about attorney's obligations, they can certainly WRITE and inform him that the Matter is closed, which occurred without much if any contact with his client, and they would appreciate receiving the retainer back.
Generally, counsels' services are 'finished' when client says they are, but retainers are contracts so do have to be considered.
Ilsa
(61,675 posts)She is the one that signed the agreement. He hasn't read it. He tends to fall for his daughter's manipulations. ("If you don't help me with my custody expenses, you won't get to see your grandkids again."
Geoff R. Casavant
(2,381 posts)I will be glad to meet with the father to review the retainer and discuss options.
Ilsa
(61,675 posts)The place is SW of you, but I don't have his permission to go any further than this yet. Thank you for your offer, though.
qazplm
(3,626 posts)ironically you might need an attorney to review the retainer contract...but extremely generally speaking, all a retainer really is, is sorta reserving the attorneys time, a kind of "you're serious about this" thing you pay upfront. It's often separate from billable hours (which is here's what I actually did for you). Still, it depends.
It's a messy situation. The daughter manipulates her father to get him to cough up the dough.