As named representative of a recently deceased relative, I had spoken with a different lawyer who'd…read moregiven me some advice that left me uncertain, so I wanted a second opinion. I'm on the east coast so got a list of National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) lawyers and PBWS seemed a solid option that I could ask questions of. I called them last Monday.
Initially I was just looking for what I imagined as a half hour of someone's time, though probably over time I'd have more questions. Even for that, they have an intake process that was a bit of an annoyance, but maybe all law offices do. The problem isn't just the delay, though that was already a factor, but the fact that you're talking to someone who isn't going to do the work, so you have to rely on them to correctly relate things, and you'll probably have to repeat yourself later. But I went ahead and explained to the person I talked to that I needed a second opinion, as another lawyer had recommended I use New Mexico's small estate process, not full probate. I said I did not want at this time to do full probate, which seemed overkill, but instead just wanted to talk to someone to ask specific questions I had about whether I was doing the small estate process correctly. The person cheerfully assured me that of course they had people who were experts and would be happy to help, but that I'd need to wait a week because things were busy.
They called the next morning and set up an appointment. They said I'd get an engagement letter in email stating the scope of work, and that it was common to negotiate details. It would have to be finalized, signed, and paid to have the meeting, they explained.
Other email came, but not that, so I emailed back Wednesday afternoon to inquire. I was told to wait longer, so waited until Friday and called to remind them, since my appointment was for Tuesday of this week (today, as I write this).
Monday came, the day before the scheduled meeting. Still no engagement letter. So I called again. I explained the meeting was the next day. Someone told me they'd have the office manager call back, which she did at 5:40pm (7:40pm east coast time, but OK). She seemed to recognize that this was a bad look but instead of taking responsibility, she blamed it on a new hire, as if once that's fixed it'd be all fine. I've been a manager. That's poor form and a BIG red flag. New people make mistakes, but if you're relying on them to operate perfectly unsupervised, that's a management problem, not a problem with the new hire. And anyway, this was not a single point of failure. I'd already been in touch with three different people, so any one of them should have told the manager much sooner than that. Clearly a lot of process flow problems. From where I sit, this was just bad management.
But I let her try to redeem herself, and she sent the engagement letter. I read it overnight. I couldn't sign it because it specifically said I was asking to have them represent me in probate, which was not the case. I'd made it clear that I wanted to use the small estate process (which as I understand it from my other lawyer, though I wanted to ask questions about that, bypasses probate). I was just looking to ask some questions and get a second opinion.
The engagement letter was also all tangled up in talk about expenses that it acknowledged I might not be initially asking for but might be incurred later and that they wanted to be sure to tell me I was liable for merely if they did these things. Not a lot of reassuring talk about me getting to confirm first.
Really I think they should have had a separate document that was just a price sheet that is not negotiable and is incorporated by reference. That'd have kept the engagement letter short and intelligible. The way they do it, it's all mixed together in a single document that is long and messy, not clearly separating negotiable from non-negotiable sectioning. Another red flag, as in my experience, good lawyering is about clarifying, not tangling.
Still, I did my best to suggest a small change to Scope of Work, substituting a few sentences for the one critical sentence that I objected to.
The next morning I got email without an apology, other than the stray use of the word "unfortunately" at one point, saying the appointment had been canceled and they couldn't represent me. Lack of legal expertise? Inability to negotiate? Conflict of interest? Didn't say.
I'm out 1.5 weeks with nothing to show. They offered referral names, but they've now shown poor judgment so why would I trust them?
I won't attempt to do business with this place again. They wanted $250-$350/hr for lawyer time and $140/hr for paralegal time. I'd have paid that to get good overall service, but at that kind of price tag, the office better be run better than that. Smooth process can make up for a high hourly rate, but I got no sense of that. I'm just happy I didn't get as far as signing a retainer.
