Tax lawyer gave me bad advice. What can I do?
I called a tax lawyer last year about a formerly unknown audit issue that I read about in the newspaper. The tax lawyer said I didn’t need to worry about the situation. During the conversation I agreed to retain the lawyer for my tax matters.
I read some more things about the tax issue a few months later and visited the lawyer. He again said I didn’t have anything to worry about. Then I read about the issue again a few weeks later and called a different lawyer.
The other lawyer said I was in big trouble and might owe thousands of dollars and even face prosecution by the IRS. She said I could have fixed the matter where can i buy prescription drugs without a prescription months ago but I didn’t do anything because of the original lawyer’s advice.
I told the original lawyer about what I discovered and he did some research and said I was indeed in big trouble. Its like he forgot telling me I had nothing to worry about. He now wants money from me to represent me in the matter and is saying I will probably owe thousands of dollars to the IRS. Had he given me proper advice months ago I would owe nothing.
I’m so screwed with the IRS now and the lawyer wants more money from me because they helped prepare my 2008 taxes and did some "research on the matter". What can I do?
Why are you messing around with lawyers? Get a good CPA or EA to prepare your taxes.
You need a lawyer when you are charged with fraud.
Personally, I would not give the "first" lawyer a lot of money to solve a problem that, if what you say is true, could have been solved more cheaply. I cannot comment on what problem you may have (since you didn’t say) so I don’t know exactly what you need.
If it is something criminal, use the second lawyer. If not, get a good EA.
You "agreed to retain the lawyer" — what exactly does that mean? Did any actual money change hands? If not, you have no actual relationship with this lawyer and have no grounds to sue for malpractice. Next question is, did he give you any of this advice in writing? Do you have any documents that you could use to prove that he told you to forget about the issue, or later documents that admit he was in error for telling you to forget about the issue? If not, you can try suing, but it will be an uphill battle. Even if you have all of the above, suing with not be easy or cheap.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.