Attorney Responsibility to Client

I signed an agreement with an atty to handle my divorce almost a year ago. The agreement stated that he would not charge me until it was final. I had, and have, no money to give him as a retainer and he seemed to understand that. It took him several months to even send me drafts of the complaint and accompanying documents. Once I made the necessary changes and sent them back, it then took him a good couple of months to even try to have my hopefully-some-day-to-be-ex-husband served in Rhode Island. (I am in Illinois.) I finally had to give my husband the atty's phone number so that they could attempt to coordinate getting the papers to him. It ended up that the atty mailed the papers to my husband, who received them right before Christmas of last year. I got a voice mail from him stating that he would not pay me any maintenance, etc., etc. My atty promised to try to reach him to discuss the matter. Since then, the atty supposedly has spent several weeks in the hospital and then was out some more for knee surgery. I have sent e-mail after e-mail and left message after message requesting an update as to the status, asking what the next step is and how quickly we can take it, and so on. The last response I received from him was months ago, and it was noncommital.

My question is this: Is an attorney not required to exercise due diligence in handling cases for his clients? Is there not some ethical responsibility involved in the practice of law? While I am more grateful than I can ever say that he was even willing to take my case on when I had nothing to give him at the beginning, I am extremely frustrated - I feel he is not meeting his obligations to me, his client.

Any input would be appreciated.

How much money have you paid him so far?

Please see my answer to the same question in the Family Law section.

This appears to be a duplicate post.

Haven't paid him anything - that was our agreement. He was willing to go forward with the process with the understanding that he would be paid once the divorce was final. I've e-mailed him and suggested to him that the sooner the divorce is final, the sooner he can get paid. I realize that he is going out of pocket on costs (which, so far, should be very few, considering how much he hasn't done!), and I appreciated at the time his willingness to take me on despite my being unable to even pay him a retainer. But this seems to be getting a little out of hand. I know that old adage "You get what you pay for." Or in my case, what you don't pay for.

Regardless, if he agreed to take me on as a client and handle my divorce knowing full well that I could pay him nothing until everything was said and done, is he not obligated to treat me as he would any other paying client? Don't attorneys that do pro bono work on criminal cases and such exercise due diligence for their unpaying clients? And they don't even have the HOPE of being paid for their efforts!

Please tell me you signed some sort of agreement with him that stated that he would not be getting paid etc.

Yes, I did. So do you understand my frustration?

You need to fire this attorney. Hire another who you most likely will have to pay upfront. Then discuss the possiblity of suing you other attorney. The problem with this is that you are technically not out of pocket any money as you have not yet paid him. So you might not get anything out of suing him.

With pro bono cases alot of the time they are deemed not as important because attorneys have paying clients that often must be taken care of first as they are paying to have it done ASAP.

If you cannot afford an attorney you might want to contact Legal Aide or an equivalent. Most courthouses have free legal services also. You may want to look into this.

Yup, I've been considering firing him. Just doesn't seem right that he should be allowed to practice this way. I've also been thinking about filing a complaint against him with the Bar, if for no other reason than to make him realize he can't treat his clients this way.

Thanks for your input - I'll contact Legal Aid and check out the courthouses.