Ex-company lawyer sent me the bill for 2000$

S

shahabraja

Registered Users (C)
I was laid-off by my ex-company "who filled my 485" so i have to use AC21 to join a new company on EAD, last month i got my 485 approved :) but here is the real surprise, my ex-company's lawyer send me a bill for 2000$

Any one is the same boat??? what should i do ???????????
 
The statement only says professional services. My ex-company paid for my labour cert, 140 and also when we filled my 485, i do not know why the lawyer sent me the bill?
 
shahabraja said:
The statement only says professional services. My ex-company paid for my labour cert, 140 and also when we filled my 485, i do not know why the lawyer sent me the bill?
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Listen shahabraja. First rule when it comes to facing legal crisis is, never threaten and never think you can win by going on offensive immediately. Courts are not the answer to disagreements. Complaining about that company's attorney without a good reason may cause them to counter-sue and you would be paying 20,000 instead of 2,000.

Having said all that... I want you to do this... call your ex-company. Speak with the legal department. Ask them to review your bill, in lieu of the fact that you were not aware of your obligation to pay. Ask them to give you details of your obligations, such as contracts you might have signed to request service from them. Ask them about the decision maker in their group who could write-off the bill. If it is a small company, speak to its owner. If it is a large company, speak to your manager. If you fought with that company before quiting, then try to mend fences.

If you tried everything I listed in previous paragraph and nothing worked, you might want to consider paying up 2,000 bucks, or consulting another attorney to get legal advice. Complaining to AILA and state bar association will not solve your problem, but could make your problems bigger. Think about it, live happy.


----------------------------
Vote Bush '04
 
shahabraja,

did you ever sign a retainer agreement or any other professional services agreement with that lawyer ?

As a first step, ask for a minute by minute accounting of the hours he billed you for.

It sounds like a cheap shot of your old company trying to squeeze some money from you after you left them. (aehm wait a second, they fired you. Probably they stiffed the lawyer on his bill and he is trying to get from you what the company still owed him.)

otoh, he got your 485 through, 2k is not that unreasonable for that service alone. Maybe you would want to resolve this in a nonconfrontational way. I am not sure whether he has a valid claim against you if you never actually hired him. If he does have a valid claim, offer him a settlement for 1k.



As for the other idiots here: It clutters up the board tremendously if you keep responding to each others posts. I am supprised the administrator hasn't booted both of you yet.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
hadron said:
shahabraja,

did you ever sign a retainer agreement or any other professional services agreement with that lawyer ?

As a first step, ask for a minute by minute accounting of the hours he billed you for.

It sounds like a cheap shot of your old company trying to squeeze some money from you after you left them. (aehm wait a second, they fired you. Probably they stiffed the lawyer on his bill and he is trying to get from you what the company still owed him.)

otoh, he got your 485 through, 2k is not that unreasonable for that service alone. Maybe you would want to resolve this in a nonconfrontational way. I am not sure whether he has a valid claim against you if you never actually hired him. If he does have a valid claim, offer him a settlement for 1k.



As for the other idiots here: It clutters up the board tremendously if you keep responding to each others posts. I am supprised the administrator hasn't booted both of you yet.
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First, do you have a signed retainer agreement with that attorney? Second, is the attorney an in house attorney or is the attorney a employee or partner of a law firm? It makes a big difference. Without a signed retainer agreement the attorney would need to be suicidal to try to collect on the debt. Most states require an attorney to at least offer to go to fee arbitration before suing a client. If the attorney is a company employee the attorney would certainly not be able to continue to represent you do to the apparent conflict (at least without a waiver from you and the company). The attorney not the company would need to be getting the money since fee splitting with a non attorney is not ethical and the company is not legally permitted to sell legal services.
 
Jim Mills,
You need to update your profile to reflect your current state of residence. It says "Florida" but i think that you live in NJ now.
 
dsatish said:
Jim Mills,
You need to update your profile to reflect your current state of residence. It says "Florida" but i think that you live in NJ now.
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You're backwards, I used to live in New Jersey but I live in Florida now.

Jim
 
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