Please help if you know about lawyers

[Poala 0]

Hello lovely VJ-ers,

This is a question for anyone that knows anything about immigration lawyers and the law in general.

To give some background on me, I am a US Citizen and I married the love of my life, who came to America a year and a half ago on the Visa Waiver Program. We got married 6 months ago, and are applying for his Green Card. When we first started looking into trying to adjust his status and file his papers, we had not yet discovered Visa Journey (I know right, how could I do anything without it?), so we decided to hire a lawyer because we thought the process would be hard especially since he was a Visa Waiver Overstay (He has overstayed for a year).

We hired a lawyer in October but we never filled out a contract or anything with him just basically he told us that he charges $2500 (without USCIS filing fees) for his services and that that was to be paid at the time that we finished all the paperwork and the papers were to be filed and submitted to USCIS. We never signed an agreement or anything now mind you.

We have been in some contact with him over the past few months, basically he sent us a few things to fill out as well as he did get my husband's birth certificate and military certificate translated for us (cost him $105). Well, about a month ago we were talking to some of our friends who were in similar situations as us that told us that they had filed the papers on their own and how easy it was and that a lawyer was a waste of money since (like most VJ-ers say) you are basically paying a lawyer to send you papers that you are filling out yourself. I started doing research and discovered Visa Journey (thank God) and realized that with some time and patience spent reading and researching and checking forums on Visa Journey, it is indeed do-able to file the papers yourself.

Long story short, we decided to do the papers ourselves and over 2 days of intense studying, filling out, and researching I finished everything, our whole packet and all the necessary items needed to file my husband's papers. We decided to let our lawyer know that we wouldn't be using his services after all but that the (little) time he did put into us we would compensate him for plus the translations he paid for.

Keep in mind, our lawyer had only sent us maybe 2 forms to fill out and gotten the translations done and hasn't filed anything for us. This guy wants to charge us $900 of lawyer fees + $105 for the translation totaling $1005. We were shocked because he really didn't do anything PLUS we never made any written contract and he hasn't filed a single paper. We are more than happy of course to pay for the $105 translation and we were even going to give him $300 for any time/inconvenience he spent on it.

NOW MY QUESTION: Does he have any sort of grounds to charge us this and/or possibly be able to sue us or take us to court over this?

Any help would be much much appreciated as we are waiting a reply from him after we told him that we felt the $900 was unwarranted and that we wanted to come to a more reasonable agreement.

[Jahwaree 83]

I understand U exactly, but do U know if the meeting and agreement was taped, seem like an attorney would

have covered his bases,I would try to talk down the $900 by pointing out to him not much is done yet, do U

really want to go up against a lawyer over a few bucks, I personally would pay him and walk away, if he sticks

out for the $1000. U said he did 2 papers plus translations, some professionals can become angry over small stuff

many went to the same schools together, many knows others in the business, think about it, and U still save $1500

[lierre 224]

NOW MY QUESTION: Does he have any sort of grounds to charge us this and/or possibly be able to sue us or take us to court over this?

Any help would be much much appreciated as we are waiting a reply from him after we told him that we felt the $900 was unwarranted and that we wanted to come to a more reasonable agreement.

900 usd for whatever work he couldn't do?

I do hope you dont have to pay as much. Does he have like a minimal fee? Like a fee for meetings you have with him?

Sorry, I couldn't be more help.

VJ is really such a great resource. We're finishing up our I-130 now

[Poala 0]

I understand U exactly, but do U know if the meeting and agreement was taped, seem like an attorney would

have covered his bases,I would try to talk down the $900 by pointing out to him not much is done yet, do U

really want to go up against a lawyer over a few bucks, I personally would pay him and walk away, if he sticks

out for the $1000. U said he did 2 papers plus translations, some professionals can become angry over small stuff

many went to the same schools together, many knows others in the business, think about it, and U still save $1500

We never met with him in person, we only spoke over email and also over the phone. We also never got a written contract or gave our signatures to any sort of fee agreements. That's why I wasn't sure over whether he is valid or not on his bill statement. We just feel that $1000 is a lot to charge someone when they didn't do much, especially when we made no agreement to pay him at all.

[Poala 0]

900 usd for whatever work he couldn't do?

I do hope you dont have to pay as much. Does he have like a minimal fee? Like a fee for meetings you have with him?

Sorry, I couldn't be more help.

VJ is really such a great resource. We're finishing up our I-130 now

He did not have any sort of minimal fee, and we never met with him in person, only a few emails and phone calls. Thanks for at least looking at the question and trying to help The only fee he asked in the beginning when we first inquired about his services was $2500 that was to be paid to him when he filed all the papers. But we never made any sort of contract or written agreement on the services paid and he didn't ask for any sort of retainment fee upfront, so I'm not sure what sort of grounds he has on us asking us for anything at all.

That's so great you are finishing up your I-30 now! You will feel so great when you are done with all your papers, we are almost done and it is such a relief. We will probably throw a party once it's all done

[lierre 224]

He did not have any sort of minimal fee, and we never met with him in person, only a few emails and phone calls. Thanks for at least looking at the question and trying to help The only fee he asked in the beginning when we first inquired about his services was $2500 that was to be paid to him when he filed all the papers. But we never made any sort of contract or written agreement on the services paid and he didn't ask for any sort of retainment fee upfront, so I'm not sure what sort of grounds he has on us asking us for anything at all.

That's so great you are finishing up your I-30 now! You will feel so great when you are done with all your papers, we are almost done and it is such a relief. We will probably throw a party once it's all done

Yes, but I don't know if I'm just being too obsessive or we are actually ready to send it already. Hahaha!

Hope this matter with the lawyer gets resolved soon.