Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Florida

Background:

I'm helping my elderly father, who is filing for bankruptcy. I have power of attorney and want to help my dad .We hired an attorney and paid him for our bankruptcy case. I had an initial interview with the attorney and told him about the power of attorney and some other issues. I wanted to settle with the credit card companies but the attorney said not to throw good money after bad money.

We are starting to feel very uncomfortable with this attorney and staff. Everytime we call for some direction we get a smart acting legal clerk who jumps to a conclusion on our question and makes you feel uncomfortable. I'm learning that legal clerks think they are very important and very wise.

Why didn't they go to law school?

We had scheduled a meeting to go over the documents so we could file. I informed the staff when I scheduled the meeting that my father would not be there because he was not feeling well. I was told that would be okay but dad would have to be at the court procedure.

I show up for the appointment and basically became embarrassed about what happened. The legal clerk closes the door and has a private meeting with the attorney. After their private meeting, the attorney comes out in the waiting area and starts to question me about the whereabouts of my father, why wasn't he present etc. I told him that his legal assistant said that he didn't have to be there at that time only for the court procedure. I always thought, we pay, you work for us.

We do want to deal with this attorney or his staff any longer. We paid him in full for the bankruptcy.

We are only talking about $14,000 in bad credt card debt.

How do you release him from our case without causing bad feelings? We want to hire another attorney(locally) but feel this will cause a problem with the new attorney.


Asked on 1/12/10, 5:24 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Sarah Grosse Sarah Grosse, Esquire

Law clerks are law students - usually second or third year in law school, but not licensed to practice law yet. They do think they are quite smart, but you should not rely upon what they say.

You can fire your attorney, and he should not take it personally. If you paid his fees, he will make a copy of your file and forward the whole thing to your new attorney. It is common and acceptable to change attorneys, and you should not feel bad about it. If your lawyer is uncooperative with you, first have your new attorney try to convince him to play nice, second report him to the florida bar.

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Answered on 1/17/10, 6:34 am
Alan Wagner Wagner, McLaughlin & Whittemore P.A.

No need to feel bad. Just tell him that you have decided to retain someone else. You might rethink the whole bankruptcy thing. You may not need to do that and can work things out with the credit card people. Consult a financial advisor about what is the best approach.

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Answered on 1/18/10, 1:59 pm


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