My small business lawyer asked for a retainer of 3500$ to file incorporation papers and help create a partnership. As is standard and in most retainer agreements, my business partner and I were told that we would be notified if we incurred additional expenses on a monthly basis and that the firm would obtain instructions from us before they went any further should the retainer deplete. This was in June. Today, they sent us a bill totalling almost 10 thousand - 6500$ in additional fees for emails and a handful (three) zoom calls negotiating terms with NO knowledge or instruction to us letting us know we owed more money. How can we proceed? We cannot afford this, it will likely put us under.
You’ve been ripped off and need to be smarter about how you spend your money and do more research before spending it.