Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
We hired a modification company, that was shut down a few month later. We filed a lawsuit with a small claims court and won it. We received judgement amount from the lawyer of that modification company. He paid everything in full, but at the same time he filed a civil lawsuit against us for 1,500,000 for damage to his reputation etc. We had to hire an attorney to represent us in the court and paid him $5000 a flat fee for dismissing the case. The attorney said that we will get the money back after the case is dismissed. December 23, 2010 was a court date and the case was dismissed. The last paper that was filed by the court is the minute order, where it says that the case is dismissed. It also says "Defendants are directed to submit a judgment of dismissal for the Court's signature". After that our attorney did not do anything else, or we do not see anything filed with the court by him. It has been 6 month since the court date and we did not get any final judgement. We just want to get the money back that we paid to the attorney. The attorney does not want to speak with us anymore, he said that he filed everything he had to file. Could you please advise what to do in our situation. Does our attorney have to submit a judgment of dismissal or not. He says this is just a standard language that the court uses. Is it normal that there is no final judgement after 6 month and no attorney fees awarded? Any advise would be appreciated.
I also wanted to note, that when our attorney filed with the court declaration of attorney fees, he almost doubled the amount that we actually paid him. He did not mention it to us. I just saw it in the papers that he filed with the court. What is our responsibility in this case?
2 Answers from Attorneys
The attorney should have prepared the dismissal as requested by the court. The case is not over until the judgment of dismissal has been signed and entered by the court. Additionally, the time limits for the plaintiff to appeal have not yet begun to run, because no appealable judgment has been entered.
Normally, the court will set an order to show cause against the attorney for the party directed to prepare a judgment, and will sanction the attorney for failing to file the requested paperwork. You need to point this out to your new attorney, and if he continues to refuse to work, you may have to complain to the State Bar, and get a new attorney to finalize the judgment and collect, if necessary, on any fee award.
You need to file a complaint with the State Bar, or find a new attorney to wrap this up, or both..
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