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I was wondering if attorneys are allowed to keep charging money even after termination. The situation is this: a lawyer has been terminated. A new lawyer has been retained and he/she has filed notice of appearance and whatever. If before the previous lawyer shows the client a detailed bill of the charges per hour/min, and charges the client, will they be allowed to continue adding to the charges every though a new lawyer has been retained? The extra charges would be under correspondences where the client may continue to communicate with the lawyer to demand said detailed bill.

My apologies if anything doesn't really make sense. Please advise, thanks in advance.

1 Answers1

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Yes.

Usually a lawyer can charge until a court formally withdraws him from representing you in a case for representation in that case (even if a new lawyer has entered an appearance and you have fired him).

A terminated lawyer, even after withdrawal, can also charge you for legal fees incurred to collect the lawyer's bill from you if the fee agreement allows him to do so.

Many lawyers don't charge their clients for billing matters, but the law allows lawyers to charge clients for billing matters if their fee agreement says that they can.

The post-termination charges you describe in the question sound like costs of collection of the bill, so they are legal if they are authorized by the fee agreement.

ohwilleke
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