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My question is this


I had an attorney award of $4000 for my legal fees that was to be paid directly to my attorney with a monthly arrangement. If those payments were not made by my ex then interest was added if he did not follow the payment arrangements

My ex has not honored this award.

For 2 yrs I periodically got a statement in the mail, showing maybe one payment here or there and that was many years ago. I called the office and they said to not worry and disregard these as they are just formally sent and that I didnt have to pay it.

I checked in periodically or they called me asking for his addresses as he keeps moving.

2 yrs later I get a letter saying I have to pay $250 a month and that it says in my original attny contract if another party does not pay that I have to pay it. I didnt fight that. But I also could not afford $250 a month payments. I was confused, called the office and spoke to the new guy handling accts, I told him my ex was ordered to pay. He looked up my account, and apologized and said he was sorry and said nevermind.

Then I get another bill. I call again and he tells me "Well if you look at your agreement with the attny you have to pay the attorney fees even if he doesnt pay the attny award" I wrote the office a letter. Explaining my financial situation, even offering to do work for free to help pay off my debt and that I could afford $25 a month payments. As the attorney was in a case with me for Child Support enforcement that escalated into such a circus that he pleaded with the judge how absurd this all was and my ex should pay for ALL of my fees. The judge awarded half. The paperwork from court that days says payment are due to my attorney and not myself along with payment amounts and dates and terms.

The guyat the office was really good with me after I sent my letter and allowed me to make $25 a month payments as that was all I could afford on my income, told me that was fine, that it wasnt my fault and they would not bill me interest as long as I made payments. And they would continue to go after my ex.

I have paid $25 a month on time every month. I have statements going back to Last year to March of this year showing a credit of the interest on my bills and he said as long as I am a person of my word and good faith this is fine. And Ive followed that to the T. I have all the statements showing a credit(there are notes next to the credits saying "Credit for payment made" and his initials) Then in March it stopped. I was billed interest.

I phoned the office and he told me once again my ex is not a man of his word, telling me they are now going after my ex via collections. And that they have to generate these letters with interest to show for the collection company.

So I just continue to get these statements, Im paying $25, and they are billing $23 interest.

So today I made another call and Im starting to get concerned, because this has been verbal with this guy at the office, nothing in writing, Ive trusted him(Bad now I know) I basically called today to ask for something in writing for myself that I am not billed the interest and what exactly is MY balance?

The guy has turned on everything he ever said to me, denying any of these agreements, just total 180 on me.

I was getting upset. I asked him to speak with the attny directly. He said he would talk to him. I said "I want to speak with him MYSELF" he got kind of stuttery at that point. Said he will see. (Ill just have to call at another time or have my husband make an appt if the guy doesnt do it)

I had a good relationship with my former attny, hes a very upstanding guy, so I dont think he would do this to me to be honest I used him several times for court and retained him twice thru the years.

So my question is this

If the office has sent the bill to collections and is going after my ex husband(not me nor have I been sent to collections)...... my sister said that they have sold it to someone else and that I should not be paying on a balance that someone else is handling it?


Does anyone know how that works, they have a collection agency hunting down my ex for this amount and Im paying on it also?

If its my responsibility to pay then why has it only been sent to collections on my ex and not myself? And if its sent to collections against my ex can they also be billing me at the same time for this?

hi i just wanted to know..how much did ur legal fees total up to..n did the judge award the fees at final order or before that?

Fees came to around $8000 total. The attny fee award was set at our last hearing for $4000 and put into the order at our last hearing.

Even attorneys will sometimes bill the wrong people for things just on the chance that those people might pay. It could be clerical error but I doubt it.

Your attorney should not be sending invoices to *you* about money owed to them by your ex. If you have a court order stating that the money is to be paid to your lawyer directly, then you can tell your lawyer to get off your back about it.

Your ex's new debts are not your responsibility. That's what divorce is for.

In fact, your attorney could be violating your ex's privacy by sending you details about his finances.

Tell your attorney's office that you're not a collection agency and that if someone else owes them money then they can track him down and bug him themselves.

Rd,
This isnt an "error". As I have been in contact all the time over my case. This happened in 2006. And for 2 yrs they didnt not ask me for payments. They even called me for his addresses. When I phoned it the office when id get a statement they told me to ignore it.

The court order states "The courts order is that Respondent shall pay to Petitioners counsel (insert name here)$4000 payable at the rate of $150 per month on or before the 25th of each month commencing Sept 2006. So long long as two payment do not become unpaid creating acceleration of the unpaid principle, Petitioners counsel has stipulated there shall be no statutory interest on the principal balance. If 2 payments become unpaid not only shall the principal balance become all due and payable, but the statutory interest shall apply from the date of the second unpaid payment on the remaining balance, then due and owing."

This is the guy who now handles my attnys billing who started all this with me a year ago. He sent me a letter saying

"I am aware that the court ordered an attny fee award and I am attempting to work with your ex, in the meantime we require that monthly payments be made by you to ensure payment of the outstanding debt as outlines in the retainer agreement you signed with our office. As we receive payments from you and your ex both of those will be applied to your outstanding balance. When its paid in full we will begin to forward the payments to you from your ex as reimbursement for the fees awarded by the court. Regardless of whether we are able to collect the money from your ex we still require that your bill be paid."

It says it my retainer agreement

"The court may order, that another party will pay some or all of the Clients attny fess, costs or both, Any such order or agreement will not affect Clients obligation to pay attny fees and costs under this agreement, nor will Attny be obligated under this agreement to enforce such an order or agreement. Any such amounts actually received by Attny however will be credited against attny fees and costs incurred by Client"

So I began making payments, wrote the office a letter of what I could afford, this was July 2008. He told me that was fine in person at the office, I have made these payments on time for over a year, have proof, he also said he would not bill me any interest as this wasnt my fault. So I have almost a year of statements showing an interest credit. Now they are billing me interest, I called in about that and he told me "Thats just a formality as we are sending your ex to collections and we have to show interest for the collection agency" I phoned in again this past week as nothing has happened, they wont be able to collect from my ex and they havent gotten anything in years, and I was just concerned Im now being billed interest. He did a 180 on me and told me they have been sitting on this for years and need there money. I didnt fight paying, I just wanted something in writing saying what MY amount is and that I DONT have to pay this interest." He said he never agreed to that. But I have a years worth of statements initialed by him with interest credits?

And why havent I been sent to collections? Why just my ex?

Hm, that's an interesting clause in the retainer agreement.

Shouldn't your attorney have petitioned for a motion of contempt, like 2 years ago when your ex wasn't paying??

Seems clear to me that it's contempt of court, not just a billing and collections issue.

Update

They sent me another letter. Basically offering me the following.

Payments of $50 a month and they will waive all future interest.

OR

Pay $2000 and waive all future payments and interest.

So if its not in there interest to waive interest as you claimed Tali, why now are they sending me a letter saying they will do so? (and they verbally told me this before but then denied it)

Im trying to cover my own tail here. Im in a bind. Im trying to come up with the $2000 and be done with it but thats tough for me even. If I am able to pay the $2000 what do I want from them proving IM DONE paying?

Tali and on your last question, Im not sure exactly what your asking so Ill do my best.

You said

are you making payments for your part of the $8,000 - or to cover the ex's court ordered share of the legal fees?

There was a balance of just under $4000 and the end of everything, the last hearing with my ex where the court fee award was ordered. The award was to go towards my fees, not after the fact, they have stated any monies in access they will forward to me if they collect them and Ive paid the balance off.

Make sense?