Costs of unrelated matters

[sahibjee]

the ex keeps sending my counsel emails in regards to matters which are not directly related to a court date or offer to settle, I have tried stopping her but she couldnt care less. is there any remedy available to me?

[Exquizique]

the ex keeps sending my counsel emails in regards to matters which are not directly related to a court date or offer to settle, I have tried stopping her but she couldnt care less. is there any remedy available to me?

Ask your lawyer to immediately forward any emails from your ex before they review it. You then review her emails and determine which emails are relevant and require attention from your lawyer, then forward said emails to your lawyer with instructions to be dealt with. That way, your lawyer won't be reviewing nonsense/irrelevant emails from your ex and charging you for it.

[arabian]

You cannot control what your lawyer decides to read. My ex's g/f did the same thing for a time. I was never charged for it. He simply never responded to anything she sent so she gave up after a while.

If you have your lawyer re-route things to you then you will be paying double - one time him to read it and then another charge for him to send it to you.

[sahibjee]

Ask your lawyer to immediately forward any emails from your ex before they review it. You then review her emails and determine which emails are relevant and require attention from your lawyer, then forward said emails to your lawyer with instructions to be dealt with. That way, your lawyer won't be reviewing nonsense/irrelevant emails from your ex and charging you for it.

That will probably reduce the costs but my ex is the kind of person who will send 2-3 emails a day "oh and i forgot to add" so it will still be billed. she's a nut. i need a way to stop her.

I was thinking of sending her something like "please send emails only regarding matters at the next court date or an offer to settle, all other emails will be charged to you at the rate of $XXX per page, all replies to those mails will be charged at the rate of $XXX+100. by sending any further unrelated emails you are agreeing to these costs.
then if she does send another crapmail we ask for those costs in court?

[arabian]

If you email her you will simply be engaging her and ultimately doing what she wants - your attention.

I'd just tell your lawyer you are not paying for non-essential communication. Let him handle it (send a letter to her or not).

This is one of the reasons I do not think it is a good idea to get lawyers involved in any sort of 4-way or letter writing campaign. I've found it is cheaper in the long run to just deal with ex in court. You send a notice of motion, they respond and there is a date in court. No back and forth.

[OrleansLawyer]

That will probably reduce the costs but my ex is the kind of person who will send 2-3 emails a day "oh and i forgot to add" so it will still be billed. she's a nut. i need a way to stop her.

She isn't a nut. She is running up your legal costs, thereby reducing the war chest for more vital matters. In some situations, this can be a powerful tool in negotiations or litigations - financially exhaust the other side to force favourable settlement.

I was thinking of sending her something like "please send emails only regarding matters at the next court date or an offer to settle, all other emails will be charged to you at the rate of $XXX per page, all replies to those mails will be charged at the rate of $XXX+100. by sending any further unrelated emails you are agreeing to these costs.

You can send that, but it would have about the same impact as sending her a picture of a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. Momentary distraction, likely positive feeling on her end, with no meaningful change in action.

I'd just tell your lawyer you are not paying for non-essential communication.

That comes across as somewhat adversarial, and is likely contradicted by the retainer agreement.

A more pragmatic way would be to instruct your lawyer to send a single e-mail to your ex (or do it yourself) saying "I have been instructed to disregard all communication from you. Please contact my client directly." Your lawyer will no longer have instructions to communicate with the other party, and so you can legitimately contest any charge you receive (there should be none) for the other side's communications from that day on.

[Qrious]

OrleansLawyer - have we told you lately how lucky we are to have you visit this site and offer us your opinion and help?

Another invaluable member of this forum!

Sahibjee - sorry to momentarily hijack your thread. Just wanted to say thank you to OL.

[HappyMomma]

She isn't a nut. She is running up your legal costs, thereby reducing the war chest for more vital matters. In some situations, this can be a powerful tool in negotiations or litigations - financially exhaust the other side to force favourable settlement.


You can send that, but it would have about the same impact as sending her a picture of a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. Momentary distraction, likely positive feeling on her end, with no meaningful change in action.


That comes across as somewhat adversarial, and is likely contradicted by the retainer agreement.

A more pragmatic way would be to instruct your lawyer to send a single e-mail to your ex (or do it yourself) saying "I have been instructed to disregard all communication from you. Please contact my client directly." Your lawyer will no longer have instructions to communicate with the other party, and so you can legitimately contest any charge you receive (there should be none) for the other side's communications from that day on.

My ex did some of the same. he also filed a complaint against my lawyer with the LSUC for failing to respond to one of his emails. He was told she has to respond because he is self represented. Not sure who told him that though.

[arabian]

penalty for not obeying the LSUC? Probably like here in AB - remedial reading LOL Don't know why they bother with those associations...

[Mess]

My ex did some of the same. he also filed a complaint against my lawyer with the LSUC for failing to respond to one of his emails. He was told she has to respond because he is self represented. Not sure who told him that though.

The lawyer makes a formal statement that their office will no longer receive service on your behalf. That is perfectly legal and normal.

It makes it awkward for your ex to serve with court responses but that is their problem.

[HappyMomma]

penalty for not obeying the LSUC? Probably like here in AB - remedial reading LOL Don't know why they bother with those associations...

Considering she did nothing wrong I certainly hope there will be NO action.

[OrleansLawyer]

My ex did some of the same. he also filed a complaint against my lawyer with the LSUC for failing to respond to one of his emails. He was told she has to respond because he is self represented.

If the matter is not in court, there is no such obligation if the other party has notice the lawyer will be disregarding the information.

If it is in court, prudence would dictate checking for service; however otherwise stating "limited retainer, communicate with client" usually suffices.