Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Virginia

You are entitled under Virginia law to your choice of attorney. Therefore, you can go to either law firm A or law firm B or to any other lawyer you want for futher legal work on your estate or trust plan.

Any capable lawyer could make the changes you need.

However, the original law firm A is most likely to have the actual file from your previous case. It is unlikely that the lawyer took the files of his clients from law firm A to his new law firm B.

On the other hand, the lawyer who went to the new law firm might understand your case better. (But 5 years is a long, long time, to remember those details.)

It is not necessary to have the legal file to make the changes that you need.

However, it would probably make it easier for a lawyer to make the changes with the least amount of work. If the law firm has the computer file, they might not need to retype the document to make smal changes to it. The file might contain information that will help the lawyer make the right decision and avoid making a decision that does not fit your situation.

But any lawyer could take the documents that you have, have a secretary retype them and make the changes that you want.

You are also entitled to a complete copy of all of your FILE from the previous legal work. Because you paid for the complete legal work, a project that was finished, you should be able to demand that you receive everything concerning your "case" from the law firm.

Unfortunately, 5 years is long enough that they law firm might not have to keep your legal file for that long. But if they have it, you are enttiled to a copy of it.

If the law firm has the computer files, you can ask for them.