Home > Research Legal Advice > Ethics / Professional Responsibility > Breach of contract - arbitration?
Asked over 1 year ago - Orlando, FL
FlagI hired an attorney to handle a family law issue. This attorney has breached the contact in every possible way: dozens and dozens of unreturned calls, lies, inaction, fraudulent billing, etc. I filed a complaint with the Bar and it is going to Court with 10 other active cases against the firm. Disbarment is definitely a possibility according to my contact at the bar. In the contract that was breached, there is a clause in regards to arbitration. I'd like to recoup my expenses as this is a very cut and dry case and clause 1 of the contract was broken by the attorney only days after signing it. I have no idea how to pursue. How do I go about arbitration (on my own as I have no additional money to throw at another attorney), and do I really have to pay for all of the firm's cost during arbitration as the breached contract states? I know this is very vague information but I assure you that the breach of contract is clear and this is a very easy case per the Bar's statements and pursuit of disciplinary action.
The contract controls and without seeing it no one can give you reasonable and appropriate advice. What is clear to you may not be so clear in Court. If the agreement provides for arbitration it is not unusual for both sides to have to pay for up front charges, which can be quite high. You mention paying for the firm's costs? Not sure what that means. If the contract provides for you to pay your costs and theirs up front, it may be a way to avoid arbitration and take the matter into Circuit or County Court. Spend the money to consult with an attorney to review the contract and determine what your best course of action is. You dont have to hire that same attorney to handle the case, but at least you can figure out what your current legal options are. I can do this by email and fax and phone if you want.
You should consult an experienced business litigation lawyer in your area to review the contract and advise you of your rights. However, before you file suit, you should make sure that the defendant has the money to pay you if you win the arbitration. It sounds like this lawyer may have severe monetary problems. You could spent a lot of money getting an arbitration award and not be able to collect any of it.
Attorney fee agreements in LA require mandatory fee arbitration before a lawyer can sue a client for non-payment, and perhaps FL has something similar. Or maybe you're trying to get your money back fvrom this lawyer and are using the arbitration clause because your contract requires you to.
Any state bar complaint is a separate issue, although as you imply, it may indicate a pattern of misfreasance by this lawyer. Bar complaints are about attorney misconduct, such as stealing a client's retainer. Bar disclipline doesn't necessarily mean there's a breach. and doesn't necessarily mean that you're entitled to any damages. Bar proceedings aren't for malpractice situations where the lawyer performs below the standard of care and breaches a retainer agreement. That requires a separate lawsuit, and will be governed by FL law. Sometimes a Bar proceeding will include a restitution order if the lawyer has stolen a client's money, but you've provided no facts about that if that happened.
For 1 example, unreturned phone calls are the most common complaint about lawyers, but they're not ethical violations and may not even be malpractice - sometimes clients have unrealistic expectations about how often a lawyer will spend the time to respond to their queries. I'm not saying your case isn't valid, and I agree that a client is always entitled to regular contact, but I don't know how often you called and how much time went by without your lawyer returning your calls.
As for your fee agreement's arbitration provision, you shouldn't have signed an agreement you didn't fully understand. You did agree to that contract, so it may have a clause stating that the breaching party has to be the non-breaching party's expenses of arbitration. No one can tell you anything meaningful about your contract without reviewing it.
Realize this isn't a malpractice case and you'd have to hire another lawyer for that, and prove a "trial within a trial," in other words, that but for this lawyer's negligence, you'd have gotten a better result in your underlying family law case. Family law issues aren't always monetary, so that may not be good choice for you anyway. As for the lawyer's alleged breach, you have the burden of proving 1) the contract 2) the breach of that contract 3) that you performed your end, except for the things the lawyer prevented and 4) that the breach caused you damage and what those damages are -that's not a easy burden.
Spending an hour with another lawyer is really what you need.
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