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Found a conflict of interest in my own attorney's office, took 2 weeks to sort out
I hired a firm in Austin for a contract dispute and discovered the associate assigned to my case was the cousin of the guy I was suing. Nobody mentioned it upfront, I found out through a LinkedIn mutual connection after 3 phone calls. I brought it up and they reassigned me to a different attorney, but it cost me an extra $450 in retainer fees for work that got thrown out. The whole thing made me wonder how often this slips through at smaller firms. Has anyone else caught something like this and what did you do about it?
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sandra1423d ago
Learned the hard way that lawyers are just as messy as the rest of us, and I say that as someone who once hired a plumber only to find out he was my ex's brother. Your situation is way worse though because it was your actual case and your actual money. Small firms run on personal connections so of course cousins and in-laws slip through, they probably don't even think to check half the time. That $450 is the part that would burn me up, like sure you fixed it but why am I paying for your mess. If it were me I'd ask for that retainer back in writing and mention the state bar if they push back, since not flagging a conflict upfront is a real problem for them. Worth checking your state bar's rules too, because most of them require the firm to catch this before they ever take your money.
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