Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Non Payment of a lawsuit

Number one, I know that a lot of law firms will back away for taking aggressive collection action on unpaid bills where their examination of the case history shows that they may have some exposure to a client suit for malpractice. Juries may not find actual malpractice in such cases but they also might find that the law firm's poor performance arranted a forfeiture of part or all of the fee, or they may find that there was a lack of support for much of the billing (unnecessary work, double billing, and other kinds of bill padding).

Number two, in a fee dispute, the lawyer must submit to fee arbitration to the client (see Business and Professions Code section 6200). If they did not do so, and did not offer arbitration to you, their right to pursue you at this late date may have been forfeited. The rules for fee arbitration differ somewhat from county to county in California.

The statute of limitations for a debt based on a written contract is four years, and begins to run when the cause of action accrued, i.e., when the bill became overdue.

Re: Non Payment of a lawsuit

I generally agree with Mr. Whipple, but I want to note that the statute of limitations for legal malpractice claims is one year. After that time has passed, law firms need not fear a cross-complaint for malpractice and will often be more aggressive about seeking payment. Because a breach of contract suit has a limitation period of four years, the law firm has plenty of time to seek payment after your claim against it expires.