Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina

Depends on a lot of factors such as your fee agreement and things like method of payment - credit card and personal check payments usually take longer than cash payments to be refunded. They can certainly keep any portion of the fee that was earned as a result of legal work performed on the case. However, It is highly doubtful any firm would keep unearned fee on the basis of "they don't like something I said to them". Any attorney practicing for any length of time has most likely had to deal with their fair share of clients who are jerks or just plain crazy, so the odds of a client being able to 'say something' that would cause an attorney to improperly withhold unearned fee is slim and none. Further, generally speaking, fee disputes are not over weather a refund is due but over the amount that is due. This happens most commonly when a narrow sighted client feels entitled to a full refund because they believe the attorney has done no work. Just make an in writing request for a refund and accounting and that should take care of it. If after a few weeks you haven't received anything, the State Bar has a Fee Dispute section. Best of luck to you!