My question involves estate proceedings in the state of: North Carolina.
I am a beneficiary of my grandmother's estate. My aunt is the Executor. She has an estate attorney that helps her with general settlement issues. Because of family issues that I won't go into, and because I do not know a lot about estates, I decided to hire my own attorney to represent me. He has been my attorney and represented me while we have countered proposals for settlement back and forth for almost two years now. It has taken much longer than it should. My attorney is very difficult to reach, he rarely returns my calls or my emails. Typically I have to contact him three or four times before he responds. I have gotten quite frustrated with him. When I first met with him two years ago, I asked him about attorney's fees. He said "don't worry about it, we can discuss that later, but don't worry it won't be much." He told me that he wanted to help and that we could discuss financials later, but that he wouldn't ask much.
The estate settlement has gotten quite complicated, and there are a lot of assets to be distributed. I'm worried that he may try to charge me a very large amount, which is upsetting, because I don't feel that he has really helped me all that much. He never gave me a contract of representation to sign. He never gave me any document outlining what he would do to help. It has all been verbal, which I thought was very odd, but when I asked him about a contract, he said not to worry about it.
My question is, if he attempts to charge me a very large amount that I am not comfortable paying him, am I required to pay him that amount? Or can I negotiate with him based on how I feel he has represented me? Thanks,

