Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Your attorney exceeding the scope of the services he agreed to perform probably is not a basis for malpractice as opposed to breach of contract and your right to reduce what he is to be paid. His fee might be based upon his being the attorney for the Trust and thus entitled to a percentage of the value of the gross assets.

I will finish this response tomorrow.

If your attorney is the attorney of record in a Court proceeding, then he is obligated to appear and represent his client. It is not clear from this brief description who the client was (the trust or you individually). An attorney has a duty to communicate significant developments with the client; however, a violation of the rules of professional conduct is not, by itself, malpractice. Legal malpractice is conduct that falls below the standard of care AND which causes actual damage. In other words, you would have to prove that if the attorney had done everything right, you would not have lost the property. To evaluate such a claim would require a very careful review of the pleadings and facts from the Probate proceeding. I would be happy to assist you in evaluating such a potential claim.

As the trustee, you do make the initial decision as to what the attorney should be paid as he is working under your direction. The fees owed to the attorney are from the Trust and not you personally. It sounds as though you feel that you have to make the payments from your own money, which is not the case. Nor can the attorney make any stipulations or change it to any extent without your approval; since a court should not accept a stipulation without a representation that you approve of it, and an explanation as to why you are not there in court, I suspect there may be other facts not mentioned by you whose significance you do not understand or appreciate.

As to acts done against the interests of the Trust and the trustee, but not yours personally, the attorney might be subject to a malpractice suit.

A quiet title action in "guise" of trust litigation merely means that while the action has been filed as part of the trust management, in fact it is a totally separate suit filed to resolve who the owner of the property is.

Based upon the facts you present, you appear to have a cause or causes of action against the attorney and may e able to reduce the attorney fees and/or recover the lost property. You need to get detailed billings from him with proof of all expenditures claimed, a copy of all documents filed with the court and sent to opposing counsel, a copy of all communications by the attorney related to the case, a copy of the attorney's entire file on the case, all court orders and minutes, proof of any payments to the attorney, etc. Any attorney you hire will need at some point to review all of those documents. Initially, you need to give an attorney the case name, court number, court address, contact information as to the trustee attorney and anyone else involved in the matter, a short but detailed history [going from first activity to last] of what has happened and what acts occurred that you question, any contracts or other documents as to the hiring of that attorney, etc.

While you might be able to force the attorney to quickly reduce his fees by a few thousand dollars, obtaining a much greater reduction may not be very easy. No attorney wants to admit to malpractice or doing more than they should have. You are making serious charges against the attorney and he will fight them and point out that you approved them by not objecting [but your approval and that of the Court are two different matters]. If you can find an attorney who will handle the matter on a contigency fee basis your

[finishing rest of response from above] economic risks will be reduced in the sense of not having to pay anything unless you get some payment, but that also means probably having to pay a higher percentage of your recovery.

You should arrange to see an attorney very soon.