Cornelius & Associates, APC

One of the partners here represented a family member in a legal matter. I reached out via email about details of the settlement. Not once did I see a retainer agreement. He responded to my emails, but never discussed me being a client. I thought, if he needs to do legal work, he'll let me know, "this is my rate, this is roughly how long it will take." Instead, he answered my questions, and I later received a bill for his time. His justification is he did legal work. Well hey, if you did legal work, you did legal work, and so I paid the invoice. But I think it's a pretty dishonest way of doing business, even if it's "par for the course". How else would we as a consumer know what we're paying for? Didn't even get a chance to shop around. It's like taking your car to a shop because you hear a clanking noise. They tell you they'll take a look. You get a call to pick up your car, they tell you it's fixed, and it's $xxxxx amount of dollars. Yeah they did the work, and yeah it's fixed, but I don't really feel good about paying that bill, because I didn't even get to ask about the costs. If this is "just how business is done", I'm sure there's a law firm out there that "goes against the grain" and has transparency about the way they conduct business and bill clients. I'll be on the lookout for such a firm.