His lawyer harrassment and my 2 lawyers?

[Tobefree]

My stbxh has his lawyer send me a weekly harassment letter about expenses or a car. They are letters that should be part of discovery but they have not filed interrogatories or production requests. I think it's strategic to find out what I know before he responds to discovery. He requested an extension for discovery which gave him 90 days. Normal is 30 days. The barrage started after we said ok. I am trying to not be dragged down and in by the negativity and harassment.

THE ISSUE: My lawyer added another lawyer to my case and they meet with me together. Holy cow. I agreed to his hourly rate because of his reputation (he was the highest paid of all I talked to) and now I am paying another lawyer too. In addition to the financial burden, it worries me to have more than one lawyer as I know that means one of them does not know everything about my case. I hired HIM. Any advice on how to handle this? Sometimes I am afraid he will fire ME if I complain. I was turned down by local lawyers and have fired one lawyer. Sometimes the enormity of it all makes me feel like giving up.

[Matt]

I think a frank conversation with the lawyer you hired is the best approach.  Tell him, "I cannot afford two lawyers.  When we all meet, instead of paying $X per hour, I have to pay $2X per hour, and I can't afford that.  If you want to handle this case for me, great - I hired you and I have confidence in you.  But I cannot afford both lawyers and I do not have the same confidence in the other guy that I have in you."

There is some risk he may "fire" you.  If that happens, you can ask the court for time to find another attorney.  But it will be better to settle the issue now, before it eats up all your money, than later.

About the "harassment" letters:  I think you need to find out how the process works where you live, and how the other side should be communicating with you.  If these letters are really inappropriate, have your lawyer send copies of them to the judge and ask that the judge order the other side to stop sending them.  Or maybe have your lawyer send the other side an e-mail:  ":)o not send more letters of this nature to my client.  We expect you to proceed based on normal procedures for such cases.  Our next step will be to file a complaint with the court."

But if these letters fall within the normal process, it might be better to deal with them - read them and respond accordingly, or if no response is needed, set them aside.  That would save the cost of involving your attorney.

[ForeverDad]

Are the hourly fees for the second lawyer less?  Is he using the second lawyer as a way to charge you less money?  I know you don't want to get double-billed, but how much are they doing together?  Or are they just touching base and handing off the case back and forth?  Is the first lawyer still making the major decisions?

[Matt]

By the way, this is one of the advantages of a single-attorney office, or an office that has just two attorneys and no receptionist.

My attorney worked alone - no receptionist or secretary - she gave me tasks like making copies and getting documents together.  So she had very little overhead - just the cost of her office space - and her hourly rate wasn't too high even though she was very experienced.

My wife's attorney was part of a big firm - big, impressive offices and conference rooms - several secretaries and receptionists - so my wife paid more per hour although her attorney wasn't as experienced or effective as mine - she just basically went through the motions - her main skill was coming up with more stuff so she could bill her client for more hours.

(But I found a way to make it all right in the end.  Our final settlement conference was at my wife's lawyer's office, and they had a bunch of glasses etched with the firm's logo.  The water glasses exactly matched the ones I got at Target.  So now I have a matched set, some with and some without the logo.  Justice at last!)

[broken3]

Ha... . Ha... .

Matt,

That's too funny. But I can totally relate. Same here. I had a single aggressive attorney. She (my stbxw) had this big firm with all the credentials.

She has paid around 30K of mom and dads money.

I think I spent around 5K.

And she damned well near lost every single argument.