Steven C Russell

Attorney Steven Russell of Carver, Russell, & West LLC represented me in my divorce case, until at which time he became unwilling to finish my case because of a disagreement on fees. Mr. Russell was making the other lawyer do much of the work, and stated the following: "I am happy to be more aggressi...ve, but I will need you to pay more in fees." (even though we had a flat fee contractual agreement that was paid up in full by me) Mr. Russell would communicate to me (via email or text) on more than one occasion, telling me what my fees would be if I was being billed hourly. One text message stated: "I just emailed to you what you would pay if I was charging $250/hr through February 24. This should help you see what goes on. I am trying to have [redacted] do the work to keep your fees down. We can switch to an hourly rate if you prefer." In one instance the disagreements between the two divorcing parties were as Mr. Russell stated, minor: “I believe these disagreements are minor and that we will be able to reach an agreement." He later stated the following: “You and I did not agree to enter into a lengthy negotiations process. I will be withdrawing. Good luck.” He had promised to finish the case as we had contractually agreed upon with his flat fee arrangement, but, just minutes later after complaining of what he now termed a “lengthy negotiations process”, Mr. Steven C. Russell of Carver, Russell, & West LLC, submitted the documents of his withdrawal from my case to the court, after I did not agree to his newly proposed fees as per the following: "I am not comfortable working with you on a flat fee basis. Instead, I will charge you like I do my clients that are on an hourly rate. I charge $250.00 per hour, rounding up to the nearest $5.00 increment. I have a minim fee of 10 minutes."