Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

The other legal advice is probably not wrong, but it did not say you were entitled to your money back. The attorney probably should have placed the $400 in her client trust fund account. Thus, keeping it untouched until the fee was to be paid. I am assuming that the attorney fees are now at or above $1,000 and the attorney applied the $400 to attorney fees and not the filing fee. This may be a breach of the fee agreement and perhaps an ethical violation if proper accounting was not met by the attorney. I am not sure how serious a violation this may be when everything is said and done. To answer what I think is you real question: if you owe for attorney fees you are not going to get your fee money back before you settle up with the attorney. Your former attorney probably should have said, "I will release the $400 immediately once you are paid in full for my attorney fees. The bottom line is probably that you are not entitled to the refund until you pay your legal fees. Perhaps another attorney can correct me if I am off base.