Legal Question in Legal Ethics in California

In 2007, we received a default money judgment in a contract dispute. We had an attorney for about 2 1/2 years. However, we discovered some over-charging and incompetence in that attorney. When we questioned him about the billing and errors made, he filed a motion to be relieved. As we refused to sign the "substitution of attorney" form. He basically abandoned us. He sent us letter claiming we harassed him and refused to pay our bill. These were all lies. We allowed him to be relieved as we did not want to deal with him anymore. We worked Pro Per for about a year not really working on the case, as I was in an accident. We recently levied on bank accounts of the debtors, and they filed a motion to "Quash the writ". We hired an attorney to represent us in the motion and won. They became our attorney of record. We've asked them to discuss with us taking the case further, but they have not communicated with us for about a week. Although our retainer agreement said they would represent us on the motion, are they obligated to discuss with us continuing with us to take the case further? They know our former attorney and have expressed to us that they know him personally. We do not know that this is the issue, but what are they obligated to do and what can we do.


Asked on 2/03/11, 10:30 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

If the new attorney's retainer agreement limited representation to the matter he already handled, you can't force him to represent you in other matters. If he doesn't want to represent you in those matters, go find an attorney who is willing to represent you.

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Answered on 2/08/11, 4:31 pm


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