Ok why is it that it seems every lawyer you work with is prompt on returning calls when they want your business but when you give thema HUGE chunk of money their customer service flys out the window!
My step-daughter's birth mom has been out of the picture for over 3 years because of drug abuse and jsut plain neglect and she decided to take us back to court for visitation ... so we go out and find a new lawyer (our old one would not return calls for a full year ... so she is fired) and we find the best lawyer in town (also the most expensive) she is prompt in returning our calls and inviting us in for a consult. A week later we come up with the money and pay her (well we get a credit card with a limit high enough I should say) and we have not heard from her since!! Our court date is Friday morning and she will not return our calls! We have not gone over anythign else other than what our consult was over, like what we want to ask for or demand on Friday and the details of everything. We don't even know if she has obtained all the documentation from the courts regarding our case. I am getting really frusterated right now that all we want is a simple call back so we can breifly discuss what all we want to have brought up on Friday in court and now that she has our money she seems to think it is ok to put us on the back burner! and if we fire her she keeps our money, we cannot afford this. It was a REALLY hard decision to go with her because we are BROKE but she was awsome came with GOOD references and has a 90% win rate in court so we decided that it is worth our money to ensure that our daughter does not get hurt again by her birth mom. and now that she has our money I feel like we are really not that important anymore
I wouldn't do that until after Friday if it is necessary at all.
She is just busy I am sure. Don't panic yet. There is still plenty of time to talk to you between now and your court date. She came with references and good rate of wins in court. Let her do her job, she knows what she needs and when she needs it. It will work out. : )
Does she have an assistant or receptionist that you can ask? Maybe she's been out sick or something and is just backed up on her phone calls.
Speaking as a domestic relations paralegal, if this woman has a 90% win rate, she's doing something right. Filing malpractice (or threatening same) over failure to return phone calls will do nothing but lose you what sounds to be a good lawyer and a chunk of money, and that's not such a good idea. The simple fact is that you probably are on the back burner right now, just like all of her other clients will be when she's dealing with your case. You don't say how long she's been your lawyer or how long you've been waiting for a call back, which are relevant bits of information in considering the reasonableness of the circumstances here. I know it's frustrating, but you really need to maintain some perspective and endeavor to be non-combative when you talk to her (and leave messages). If you are leaving messages with a person, ask this person to get an update on your case and call you back. The lawyer has to deal with whatever is the most immediate problem, and, though it may seem strange, Friday is years away in lawyer-time.
This is not to say that you shouldn't convey your request that you be kept informed, perhaps by staff rather than the atty herself if necessary, as to what is happening on your case. That's not an unreasonable request, unless you're expecting daily status updates (which I guarantee you DON'T want because the retainer will disappear in a hurry at that rate and you'll end up owing more).
Also, bear in mind that she really doesn't need to discuss a lot of things with you as far as her direction on the case. I'm assuming you covered the relevant ground in the consult, and from there she knows what the judge will and will not consider relevant, and what arguments need to be made, what facts are important legally, etc. Once I've got the basic nature of a case, I know what to do with it, and I do what needs doing, and will generally meet with the client right before a hearing (with the atty) to clear up any details.
All that to say this may not be all that unusual, and don't panic yet! 
Again, if she's winning, she's doing something right. But be aware that in many courts there is a presumption that birth parental involvement is a good thing, even with drug history, etc., so momma may well get some visitation. She (and the child) have a legal right to that, unless very, very strict standards are met. I'm in a different state so I don't know exactly what happens in yours, but just a heads-up.
Thank you breelaura for your response. i don't plan to say anything about malpractice, it is just frusterating ...we did cover a lot in teh consult she does have a good idea of what we want out of our court date on friday but we just want to makesure that every detail is covered. and Yes I agree that IF birthmom has shaped up that she has a right to see her child however she has not and as of now we need to make sure it is VERY hard for her to get ANY visitation back ... she has a history of abandonment and we are not abotu to let it happen again, she has left my step daughter at home alone, then she would roll her blunts and smoke them in front of my step daughter, she tested positive for cocain, she has a long history of police reports for domestic violence, she left state with a boyfriend and didn't tell us, she was a no-show for a supervised visitation just before she left the state, there is history of drug abuse while pregnant, she has a history of up and moving nad not telling anyone AND she has another child that she abandoned in another state just this past december just up and left without warnign just like she did to my step daughter ... as far as I am concerned it is going to take a lot more than 1 court date for her to get ANY visitation back especially since she has not done any drug rehad ordered by the court and there are no ongoing drug tests to prove she is clean.
anyway back to the lawyer, there are a few issues that we still need to touch on as far as what we want to ask for during court and we just want to make sure it is covered come friday morning.
and no we do not want daily status updates, we haven't even talked to her ONCE since we hired her a couple weeks ago. And none of her assistants have any info for us.
Follow up with the assistants, then. I can tell you from experience that the lawyer ir probably in court or mediations or other stuff basically every day, but a good paralegal knows what's going on with your case and can talk to you and answer a lot of your questions and basically try to help keep you sane through the process. Domestic relations is tough stuff, especially for the clients!
It sounds like you might have a slam-dunk there. In my circuit, the best this person can hope for is some limited supervised visitation, conditioned on drug testing, etc. Again, I'm not in TN (and I'm a paralegal, not a lawyer), but I would think that her history is enough to give any judge the heebie-jeebies.
I never assume I'm actually going to talk directly with my attorney .... I deal with the para-legals and the assistants mostly. Which is fine with me .... one, it's cheaper to talk with them. Two, they are doing the research anyway. Three, if it's something the lawyer actually needs to talk to me about, he will.
I have a great para-legal person in my attorney's office and we communicate mostly via email. Had an issue just this week and my attorney called me back the next day.
Hi AmandaPanda, how'd it go?
Yep, I'm with Breelaura - I'm a legal assistant and I usually am the person who ends up talking to everyone because the attorneys are not in the office. If it's something I can't answer, I email the attorney handling that case and when they get a minute they can check their blackberry and get back to me, so I can call whomever needs the info.
If you were here you'd have won and then some, so I think you probably kicked her butt. Hope you did anyway...!
thanks she never returned our calls and the assistantsdid not know anything so she said to come in at 8am 9court was at 9) so we could finalize details, she didn't even get into her office until 8:35 and we did not talk to her until 8:45 .... she did not have our counter defence written or even typed up we went to court and luckely it was just a hearing to set a date, but we had to go back toher office after court to re writesome sutff in the defence and go over thigns we had not covered yet, it was pretty frusterating but we got it taken care of finally and we are on our way to showing birthmom who runs the show. Our lawyer is really good at what she does it is just frusterating when you hadn someone a HUGE chunk of money and we hired them they work for us, and I do not expect for her to be at our beck and call but darn it if you tell us to meet you at 8am then we don't want to be sitting around for 45 minutes waiting, but we are past that now and we have a pretty good feeling onhow things are going to go so long as she continues to get her job done ... she is suuposed to be looking into finding any police convistiosn on her or searching for reports that may help us out.
I have had the same thing happen with our lawyer.
When we first called his office about him reresenting us he PERSONALLY called us back within 5 mins. After we paid his outragous fees it was damn near impossible to track him down. If we were lucky, one of his assistants was able to relay a message to him...I totally feel your frustration!
Good luck!
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