Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota
Wrong files given to the other party
Months after my divorce was final, my ex asked about some of the file papers he had received from his attorney at the end. I asked to look at them. Turns out, these are pages and pages of itemized expenses from a business that I have never seen before. They are not mine.
I haven't received my file from my attorney, not sure if I can as I am still making payments to her, which she charges me 18% on. So I don't know if a copy of that is also in my file.
Most likey I was charged for her to send this to the other attorney.
There were other mistakes made, such as not remembering an e-mail received from the other attorney. Time was spent talking to me about it and then writing another e-mail asking for a response. She didn't realize that we had already had this covered until after she spent more time on it and the other attorney contacted her. I am not sure if I was charged for this and have no idea of how to find out. What are my rights on this?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Wrong files given to the other party
First of all, your file is your property. You are entitled to a copy of that file and it cannot be withheld for non-payment of legal fees. You can be charged costs for copying that file however.
Second, you may certainly review your billing records and challenge any charges that you deem inappropriate. However, that would require more than speculation that some additional records not associated with your file were transmitted.