Lawyer Attempting to Overcharge Me

[BigWills]

Long story short I am currently going through a foreclosure on my home. I am going through a huge financial hardship(lost job due to injuries and no insurance, eek!).

I hired on a lawyer to help me possibly get me some of my down payment back (I purchased this house less then a year ago) and to see if I had any certin rights.

Anyways, at first he said he would help me with the case for about $900. I said ok great.. but.. I have no money.. I told him that I was planning to sell my car to help pay off medical bills and also utilities and credit cards and that I could pay him out of that. He said, well how about this. I will put a lien on your car and when you sell it you can pay off what you owe and i'll take it off. So I brought my title down to him, and signed a paper that was bassicly like a loan paper. He now holds the car title.

Over the course of a 1-2 months and some court things have gone on I have racked up a $1,400 bill with him, thats fine. I got the bill in the mail about 10 days ago. I also finally sold my car I wanted to pay off the current bill.

So I call him and tell him that I sold my car. He tells me I need to go down there and fill out some paper work for our case.

So after we do all this paper work (took about an hour), we are talking about the bill. I ask how much the bill is, he goes "how much did you sell car for". I told him I sold it for $14,000. He goes, well.. I think about $7,000 will do it. I go $7,000?!?!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#!@#. I thought it would be a max of $2,000 with all this new paper work. He goes "well maybe $6,000 sounds better". I go NO WAY. Then he starts adding his time up(I am only paying him by the hour $175/hour) he is adding outloud. He goes well 2 hours, maybe 3 hours, hmm maybe 4 hours here. Then I think around 5 hours here, and so on. So bassicly, he is pulling these numbers out of no where?! I also ask him how could I grow that fast, it was just $1,400 and we havn't done anymore work. He tells me he had been working on it all day. He then goes, well thats atleast another $2,000 there. I go, how can that be $6,000 then?!?! He then rounds up the amount he goes rougly $4,000 then...

So bassicly, I think this guy is trying to scam me because he knows I sold my car and HE HOLDS THE TITLE. What can I do here? I told him to STOP. So bassicly, now I am not only screwed on my mortgage case (we were working on getting a 9 month stay for me to get back on my feet, he says there's no way it will happen if he drops out now) but I cannot afford to pay these crazy prices that he makes up.

I told him to fax me a detailed sheet tomorrow on what my charges are tomorrow. Then he has the nerve to tell me that he will not accept a regular check, only a cashiers check and not only that. That he wants his $6,000 tomorrow?!?!

What are my rights here? What can I do? I am going to be homeless, without a car, and without any money (I dont' even have enough to pay him this number he made up, i'll have to try and borrow some from family). Please help. Please

[Mr. Knowitall]

Possible actions: Complain to the state bar. Sue him in small claims court.

[Just Breath]

I would go a step further and call the media! What a worm! In fact, you might even talk to the DA. I don't know if you have a criminal complaint, but if it were I, I'd at least inquire.