legal fees for reading it? In this case, I am not the direct client of the attorney. I am a homeowner in a homeowner's association who through the President and the power of group vote, got dragged into being a party to indirectly hire the attorney. This was a move I disagreed with since resolution of a co-owner's payment default on a special assessment could have been achieved via simple communication with the violator who the President had ulterior motives to get rid of (i.e. racial discrimination). So she wouldn't communicate and escalated this to a foreclosure level that was never called for, and my goal all along is to de-escalate and move on since the default has been cured already.
The violator cured the payment default and under state law, is not liable to pay attorney fees because they were not given correct advance written notice of the attorney's charges or the deadline to cure the default. So after the default was cured, they are not liable to pay for an attorney they never hired. The HOA President received the benefit of the attorney's services -- not the violator.
But the attorney is also not a real estate specialist and may not have knowledge of the specific real estate law which was amended in 2002 to afford homeowners protection against overly aggressive HOAs and attorneys using threats of liens and foreclosures, just to manufacture unnecessary fees for their own pocket or ulterior motives to drive certain people out they don't like.
The lawyer already refused direct communication with me as an interested homeowner, his hiding behind the President as the only one he would talk to, even though we as homeowners are ultimately responsible to pay his bill.
If we send him a copy of the relevant real estate law, could he argue this caused him to spend time on our case and therefore we owe him more money?
My sense is that an attorney practicing in real estate matters (whether they know what they are doing or not) should already KNOW the laws and shouldn't be able to charge others for his own education. The law is a matter of public domain and is not confidential knowledge. So the fastest way to shut this case and his fees off is for him to wake up and take notice that he has a case for legal fees he can't win unless the President pays him, probably with homeowner's hard-earned savings. The lawyer can attempt to make other creative arguments how others besides the one who hired him should pay his fees, but we are talking about some pretty tough homestead laws he would have to overcome, and so his chances of success in making creative arguments to trump homestead law are slim.
So would sending him a reminder copy of the relevant laws he has yet to focus on (or is purposely ignoring) give him legal cause to charge us more money at $200 per hour?
At most, I would attach a note, "Regarding the _____ case...." so he couldn't claim he spent a quarter hour reading a personal letter.
Correction to Responder Ms. Directed: No this is not a large group as you assumed. It's a small group of 10, 5 of whom are absent and would never call. The lawyer is dodging because he is manipulating the President to trust totally in him versus her following her fiduciary duty to protect the homeowners. She's "gone native" with him and he knows it, so he tries sending any competition to his collecting fees away. But it's my money too, so I have a right to try to stop this mess before it spins out of control.
The violator cured the payment default and under state law, is not liable to pay attorney fees because they were not given correct advance written notice of the attorney's charges or the deadline to cure the default. So after the default was cured, they are not liable to pay for an attorney they never hired. The HOA President received the benefit of the attorney's services -- not the violator.
But the attorney is also not a real estate specialist and may not have knowledge of the specific real estate law which was amended in 2002 to afford homeowners protection against overly aggressive HOAs and attorneys using threats of liens and foreclosures, just to manufacture unnecessary fees for their own pocket or ulterior motives to drive certain people out they don't like.
The lawyer already refused direct communication with me as an interested homeowner, his hiding behind the President as the only one he would talk to, even though we as homeowners are ultimately responsible to pay his bill.
If we send him a copy of the relevant real estate law, could he argue this caused him to spend time on our case and therefore we owe him more money?
My sense is that an attorney practicing in real estate matters (whether they know what they are doing or not) should already KNOW the laws and shouldn't be able to charge others for his own education. The law is a matter of public domain and is not confidential knowledge. So the fastest way to shut this case and his fees off is for him to wake up and take notice that he has a case for legal fees he can't win unless the President pays him, probably with homeowner's hard-earned savings. The lawyer can attempt to make other creative arguments how others besides the one who hired him should pay his fees, but we are talking about some pretty tough homestead laws he would have to overcome, and so his chances of success in making creative arguments to trump homestead law are slim.
So would sending him a reminder copy of the relevant laws he has yet to focus on (or is purposely ignoring) give him legal cause to charge us more money at $200 per hour?
At most, I would attach a note, "Regarding the _____ case...." so he couldn't claim he spent a quarter hour reading a personal letter.
Correction to Responder Ms. Directed: No this is not a large group as you assumed. It's a small group of 10, 5 of whom are absent and would never call. The lawyer is dodging because he is manipulating the President to trust totally in him versus her following her fiduciary duty to protect the homeowners. She's "gone native" with him and he knows it, so he tries sending any competition to his collecting fees away. But it's my money too, so I have a right to try to stop this mess before it spins out of control.