- Jurisdiction
- California
I hired an attorney to draft and send a simple letter for me. Every point he made in the letter were things I had told him directly in emails or in documents. He overcharged me for the work that he actually did. To review the documents and put together the letter should've taken at most two to three hours, and even that's being generous. The first bill was nominal but then the next bill I found that, without warning, he had not only exhausted the retainer but billed for more than twice its value. The itemized bill shows all kinds of research but the actual product that I got from him, the letter, only reiterates points I had made to him in an email. I have a few questions about the situation: 1) Is there any obligation for attorneys to warn clients when the retainer has been exhausted? Is billing more than twice the retainer without warning considered fair? 2) What about fees for work that ultimately isn't utilized in the work product?