Post: Civil Attorney Refusing to Do Work He Was Paid For
Posted by Chris on 2/01/04
About a year ago, a third party person hired an attorney
for me, to represent me as my attorney in a section 1983
case that includes arbitrary government interference with
my private employment...The attorney assurred me in writing
that while the case had existed for nearly a year, he was
not aware of any statute of limitations that would prevent
the case from being filed. Currently, we are quickly
approaching a year since the Attorney was paid and
virtually nothing has been done with my case. During this
year, the communication from the attorney has been
extremely poor..though recently it has become non-
existent. So my questions are this:
1. What recources do I have in way of the attorney? Is
this incompetent representation or malpractice?
2. Is the contract I signed with the third party payer
void where the attorney is refusing to do his work and is
therefore placing the case in harms way? The contract says
if I win the case he gets the full sum back or 15%
(whichever is greater) and if I die before the case is
finalized, he still gets his money if the case wins... In
other words, if I fired the attorney, could I still be held
liable in way of the contract and have to reimburse the
third party person even though the attorney was refusing to
do any work, write the complaint and file the case in the
federal court system?
3. While the attorney has consistently maintained that he
is not aware of any statute of limitations that would
prevent my case from being filed...he has yet to tell me
what the statute is...so, what is the statute of
limitations? Some people have told me it was six months...
If true..then did the attorney commit fraud by taking the
case and full payment a year after the harm was done? On
the false pretense that I could still have my case filed.
4. If the attorney has engaged in incompetent
representation and/or malpractice, what are my options.
Posts on this thread, including this one
- Civil Attorney Refusing to Do Work He Was Paid For, 2/01/04, by Chris.
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