Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Pennsylvania
Last March, my husband and I met with a bankruptcy attorney. His contract states that all fees are non-refundable. He signed the contract, but we never did. We paid him in full in August 2010, but recently we decided to not go through with the bankruptcy proceedings. He will only refund us the filing fee and credit report fee. Since we did not sign the contract, can we get back more of our money? We are not expecting a full refund because we know his office did do service in regards to calling our creditors, but we thought we should get at least half of what we paid him.
Not sure what area of law this falls under to answer this question.
1 Answer from Attorneys
As you apparently live in Beaver County, i would contact the Beaver County Bar Association Fee Dispute committee. The cost of doing this would be free and you don't need any attorney. The case would be heard an arbitrator, whose decision would not be binding. If this failes, or you are not happy with the decision, you have 2 options. First, you can sue the lawyer in your local District Justice Court. Second, if there is a question as to whether or not this lawyer acted ethically in failing to return a portion of the fee, then you could file a compalint with the PA Disciplinary Board, who would then conduct an investigation. The Disciplinary Board web site is http://www.padisciplinaryboard.org/index.php.
I would certainly go through the Bar Association's fee dispute committee first.
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