Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

Re: attny fees

There really is no time limit per se. Most billings are done timely, but if an atorney, like any business person is unattentive to his/her billing, it causes frustration to client who want to pay their bills. I would just give them a call once again.

Re: attny fees

Technically, there is not a time limit for billing, but there are two things that effect that.

First, there IS a statute of limitations. An agreement to perform legal services is a contract and an attorney (or most other people) may not sue on a contract after two years (for an oral contract) or four years (for a written one).

Secondly, the Disciplanary Rules of Professional Conduct have pertinent provisions. For example, a lawyer must "promptly comply with reasonable requests for information" from a client(Rule 1.03(b)). Also, the lawyer's duty to represent the client and to "exercise independent professional judgment" (Rule 2.1) would be hindered by a fee dispute.

The most important reason to promptly bill clients may be to catch misunderstandings about billing practices. It is far better to recognize problems before they get too big.

Having said that, I am now in a firm where a staff member is responsible for billing all clients within the first three days of each month. I must admit that I was not nearly so diligent when I was a solo practitioner.

Try writing the attorney and requesting a current bill and follow up with a phone call a week later. The odds are that the attorney is swamped and feels the need to take care of his other clients' needs.