Legal Question in Business Law in California

You can't honestly expect this attorney or frankly anyone else to invest 5 hours with you with no expectation to be paid right? I mean, am I missing something? Most lawyers will offer an initial free consultation, usually over the phone but sometimes in person. This is usually a free 30 min to 1 hour of time just to discuss your case, strategy and how that lawyer or firm will handle things and charge, etc. But I don't know any lawyer that would not charge for a 5 hour meeting. Unless you are saying that it was not a 5 hour commitment and that this an erroneous charge.

As for all the other expenses and billable time, that lawyer should have a proper accounting of everything that was billed against your retainer as well as third party payments like process servers, messengers, etc. and you have every right to see that.

Kind regards,

Frank

www.LanternLegal.com

866-871-8655

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DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be specific legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. No attorney-client relationship is formed on the basis of this posting.

It is extremely unusual to spend that much time at an initial meeting at which the client is deciding whether to hire the attorney and the attorney is deciding whether to take the case. If the meeting went that long, it seems apparent that you got pretty deep into the case, in which case I agree completely with Mr. Natoli that it is unreasonable for you to expect that to be a free consultation.

I personally do not offer free consultations anymore, other than a brief initial phone conversation. I found that I was spending a lot of hours essentially coaching people who had no intention of hiring an attorney and just wanted to pick my brain. So I now charge a modest fee for the initial consultation.

As for paying expense bills, it is not at all appropriate for you to ask that those bills be forwarded for you to pay. It is unusual, but entirely within your rights to ask for copies of the bills, but the attorney or firm is entitle to manage their accounts payable and receivable the same as any other business, billing their customers and paying their vendors.