Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Attorney Fee's for Estate Valued Just at $100K
My mother passed away with no will and her estate was valued at $100,104.00. Attorney told me estate would go through Probate. Signed contract for hourly fee's. Little did I know the attorney had never handled a probate case before. She was not upfront, and charged me hours and hours for research for her to learn how to process a probate case, quickly surpassing the $5K retainer in a few months. She told me originally the cost would not exceed retainer of $5K. Estate is simple, 4 or 5 creditors, no real estate, a money market account, a 401K, two heirs. Attorney's bill have now exceeded $9K and attorney is requesting extraordinary fees up to $12K. Is this legal? There is one part of the estate that maybe considered an exception, and this is the creditor who owned the house my mother leased. He was requesting $7.5K for remaining rent, although the lease agreement died with my mother. Attorney requested I settle to avoid litigation, so I did. Can the attorney really charge me $12K in legal fee's on a $100K estate? Would a judge approve this? Plan to dispute but don't know the legel standing I have on this. Thanks!
4 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Attorney Fee's for Estate Valued Just at $100K
If I were in your shoes I would try to negotiate with the attorney before she files with the Court. That is, tell them you won't agree to their fee request unless it is reasonable. Without knowing all the facts $6k is probably about right. If your attorney will not agree then I would consider firing the attorney before the final petition is heard and hiring a new attorney who knows what they are doing. Then I would object, object, object to the fee request! Please tell your story to everybody so others will hire competent probate attorneys like myself when it's their turn! Good luck to you.
Re: Attorney Fee's for Estate Valued Just at $100K
All attorneys fees are subject to court review. The court will look to see what services were routine and what were for extraordinary services. Then as to the latter, the court will look at the time billed for what, all relative to the amount in dispute. You can appeal to the judge to approve only the statutory fees since you agreed to settle the lease claim and it was not litigated.
Re: Attorney Fee's for Estate Valued Just at $100K
All attorneys fees are subject to court review. The court will look to see what services were routine and what were for extraordinary services. Then as to the latter, the court will look at the time billed for what, all relative to the amount in dispute. You can appeal to the judge to approve only the statutory fees since you agreed to settle the lease claim and it was not litigated.
Re: Attorney Fee's for Estate Valued Just at $100K
Probate fees are set by Statute and are not hourly. This does not even sound like it should have been a Probate matter. I'm afraid you may need to turn this one in to the State Bar for disciplinary action.
Links to the Probate Code that discuss this can be found through our firm's website No-Probate.com.
Scott
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