Lawyer fees - refunds

[AlinaNY]

A bit of a nightmare with lawyers. A while back my mom hired a lawyer as she prepared to sponsor my dad. Over the course of time he joined forces with another firm, then dumped them. Time slipped away due to this and other factors, the application was never filed. The dumped firm dissolved after he left them and they transferred all the files to some other firm (now a third office!!!). The new firm seems rather incompetent, giving incorrect advice. We don't want to continue with them. But we also don't want to go back to the old lawyer due to his behaviour. At the end of the day, the issue is financial. 50% of the fee is with the old lawyer - so question 1 - can we demand any of that money back? And 25% of the fee is with the new/latest firm - they say it was what retained in the trust after the dissolution of the previous law office - so question 2 - can we require that they refund this money to us as well? All in all, when does it stop being a situation when the lawyer conducted business in good faith and deserves some of the fee and starts being a situation of "negligence and incompetence" that allows us to request a refund?
If this is unclear, I can provide more details.

 

[scylla]

I would certainly try.

I would write a detailed letter outlining the timelines and their failure to deliver the services you paid for. If that gets you nowhere, I would then tell them that your next letter is going to be an official complaint filed with the provincial regulatory body (in the case of Ontario, this would be the Law Society of Upper Canada).

 

[margobear96]

What does the retainer letter/agreement say? Was the fee a lump sum for "PR filing" or was it a retainer put in trust, but the lawyer was going to really bill hourly? If the former, are there no provisions in the retainer agreement regarding what happens if the service is not rendered? If the latter, both the old lawyer and the second firm should refund what wasn't spent/invoiced for.