A Sample Letter to Terminate an Attorney

Many people use attorneys in today's fast paced society for a whole variety of reasons. Attorneys are needed to represent people for everything from divorce proceedings and child custody battles to handling an estate or even for criminal defense. All attorneys usually focus their practice on a specific type of law and mostly handle cases that are just of that subject matter, such as divorce .

Letters to terminate an attorney, also known as a letters of disengagement, need to be straightforward and respectful. They can be from the attorney to the client, or from the client to the attorney. There are a variety of reasons that clients and legal counsel may have that necessitates ending this professional relationship. In order to formally end this relationship and to prevent either needless work, paying for further services, legal liabilities or other consequences of confusion, a letter of disengagement is necessary. While the letter should address some aspects that are specific to the writer's personal situation, many free samples of this kind of letter are available, and they can assist writers in determining what content, tone and format the letter should follow.For attorneys,http://www.nysba.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=14572 provides necessary consideration to undertake when writing a letter of disengagement as well as a sample letter. According to this source, the reasons an attorney would terminate their own services range from unpaid bills to avoiding a possible conflict of interest. The sample letter offers a sample paragraph for common disengagement situations, including client inactivity, nonpayment, and communication difficulty. The sample also provides examples of how to communicate information concerning the substitution of counsel and important dates and deadlines if litigation is pending.For clients terminating the services of their attorney, http://deltabravo.net/custody/attyrelease.php is a resource that provides a number of considerations as well as a sample letter. The site advises clients to state clearly that they no longer require the attorney's services and that they should ask that their files be forwarded to them or their new attorney if a new legal counsel has been arranged. This source also advises clients in certain situations may benefit from terminating counsel at a court appearance so that it will be entered into the public record in order to prevent the terminated attorney from potentially damaging the litigation by continuing to work on it.