Is there some kind of Governing body or organization in the DR that can give advice and or help clients (in this case a foreigner) prosecute lawyers for not completing or outright stealing money from unsuspecting foreign clients.
Briefly, A family i have been trying to help by translating a little and passing information between themselves and their Dominican Lawyer paid for emergency legal representation upfront by bank transfer from UK to her bank account, the sgreement was that half of this money would be used for expenses and legal costs and the second half to be paid on completion of services. The reason the total amount was actually sent was because of urgency expressed by lawyer, she said the whole process woud take only 6 weeks....now i do realize what you are thinking, why the hell pay everything upfront, but at the end of the day that is what happened and there is nothing we can do to change that.
Anyway the lawyer a year later still has not completed services and basically gone off the radar, this family have been through the mill and are in process having legal demand being written for the balance to be returned until the have a result.
Is there any likelyhood lawyer can be sued or at least can be reported to some kind of Assosiation.
Sorry for the lack of legal jargon and or knowledge but i really would like to help this family as much as possible.
Thank you
Briefly, A family i have been trying to help by translating a little and passing information between themselves and their Dominican Lawyer paid for emergency legal representation upfront by bank transfer from UK to her bank account, the sgreement was that half of this money would be used for expenses and legal costs and the second half to be paid on completion of services. The reason the total amount was actually sent was because of urgency expressed by lawyer, she said the whole process woud take only 6 weeks....now i do realize what you are thinking, why the hell pay everything upfront, but at the end of the day that is what happened and there is nothing we can do to change that.
Anyway the lawyer a year later still has not completed services and basically gone off the radar, this family have been through the mill and are in process having legal demand being written for the balance to be returned until the have a result.
Is there any likelyhood lawyer can be sued or at least can be reported to some kind of Assosiation.
Sorry for the lack of legal jargon and or knowledge but i really would like to help this family as much as possible.
Thank you