Legal Question in Consumer Law in Iowa

Are lawyers required to disclose of any charges prior to or during service? My girlfriend used to bank with TS Bank in Iowa. Her mother passed away & left a trust. After some identity theft issues, the bank decided to drop her from their bank. Fast forwarding a couple years too April/May of 2017. Her father is required to pay restitution for what happened with her mother. Apparently there was some issues with transferring this money to a different bank, so the county attorney who made her aware of this floating restitution assisted by reaching out to TS Bank's lawyer. A month or so later, she has now received her money. In October of 2017, The TS Bank lawyer decided to send us a bill for $280 for his services. Are we responsible for this? We were never made aware of any charges & there was no verbal or written agreement of this. In fact, She has never even met this lawyer. They've had one conference call and that is it. I've done my research on it & found that according to Chapter 32 Rule 1.5 of the Rules of Professional Conduct (Paragraph B), it states that the Scope of the representation & the basis or rate of the fee & expenses for which the client will be responsible shall be communicated to the client, preferably in writing, before or within a reasonable time after commencing the representation. Should we be responsible for this bill?


Asked on 11/03/17, 2:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Thomas Moens Moens Law Offices, Chartered

From what you describe, it certainly is not clear that you are obligated to pay this bill. It seems that he or she was working for the bank. More information would be needed, but another consideration is the potential conflict. If there was a potential conflict for the attorney in representing the bank and you, which would seem to be the case, this conflict should have been disclosed to you in writing prior to the attorney doing any work which could be billed to you. In other words, the attorney could not represent you (and bill you) without disclosing the conflict and getting your permission before proceeding. I hesitate to state unequivocally that you should ignore this bill, since there always is more to the story than can be included in a forum such as this, but there certainly are some interesting facts here that make it less than clear that you owe it.

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Answered on 11/06/17, 1:48 pm


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