My Attorney Worked Probably Less Than Three Hours And Says I’m Not Entitled To Get A Refund On The Remainder Of My $7,500 Initial Retainer.

Hello all,

I was wondering if I could ask the community for some help with a question in regards to the rules for lawyer retainer fee refunds.

So to start from the beginning.. I retained a lawyer for $7,500.00, at an hourly rate of $475 an hour. My attorney and I concluded what we were trying to do, I think he must have done around 3 hours worth of work or less.

Okay, so far so good. I think that’s about 6k that I THOUGHT I was entitled to. However, when I inquired about it they were dodging me for like two weeks. Kept saying they would call me back and didn’t kept saying the billing person would call me and they didn’t. Something fishy was going on.

Then I get a call from the managing attorney at the firm and he quotes this in the retainer fee. For context I was in desperate need of representation for a court date in two days so I didn’t exactly read the entire retainer agreement and just signed it.

This is the text in the contract:

“(a) In order for us to begin our representation, you have agreed to pay us and we have agreed to accept a retainer payment of $ 7,500.00. This retainer payment does not necessarily represent the amount of the overall fee, which you may incur by virtue of our services. The amount of our eventual fee will be based upon our regular schedule of established hourly time charges, along with any out-of-pocket disbursements (such as Court costs, messenger services, transcripts of proceedings, long distance telephone calls, telefaxes, process service fees, mileage, deposition and Court transcripts, and excess postage) which are incurred on your behalf.”

So essentially he’s saying even though we barely did jack shit we’re taking your entire fee because your case has been closed or whatever. This took place in queens New York. I looked up the New York rules and it said that no matter what you are entitled to the remaining retainer fee amount. The managing attorney said the rules don’t apply because once I signed the retainer agreement I am in a contract now which supersedes the New York rules.

These guys are refusing to send me a breakdown of my final bill I have a feeling there is a way to fight it and they are hoping I’ll give up.

I asked my attorney friend in California and he said that this is absolutely not enforceable in California and he feels what they are doing doesn’t sound enforceable in new York either. He said I could say I could threaten to file a complaint to the ny bar and leave a bad review and maybe that will call their bluff and they’d cooperate.

I should also mention that there’s a portion in the agreement where if I terminated their services before the case was resolved then they would refund me what was left after the billable hours were booked. At this point I don’t even care if I get the full 6k back. They definitely will make some shit up to nickel and dime me but that’s better than nothing. I already put myself in such a bad spot paying that entire fee up front but it was with the understanding that I would get refunded some of it back. I feel mislead because they pushed me to sign that contract so fast but after I signed it I would have to follow up multiple times for simple stuff.

I guess my question is.. am i fucked? Is this firm fucking with me? It’s a pretty big law firm with a lot of five star reviews which is why I picked them. They probably have had this situation come up several times and know exactly how to fight it.

But I’ve had the worst experience so far and they have not been that helpful in any capacity if I’m being honest.

Thanks for your advice everyone.