The word “nonrefundable” can end a conversation before a client has asked the right question. A lawyer points to the agreement. The money has already changed hands. The client assumes there is nothing left to discuss.

But a label does not explain what the payment bought, whether the lawyer earned it, or where the unearned balance belongs. Those questions matter when a client wants to change lawyers, a case ends early, or the promised work does not appear on the bill. Clear accounting is a protection against legal abuse.

Paying for availability is different from paying for work

Texas Professional Ethics Opinion 611, issued in September 2011, addresses this distinction directly. A genuine availability retainer compensates a lawyer for accepting the engagement and losing opportunities to take other work. A payment for future services is different, even when an agreement calls it a nonrefundable retainer.

The opinion says a qualifying availability retainer may be earned when received. It also recognizes circumstances in which part may have to be returned, including voluntary withdrawal or discharge for cause before opportunities were lost. “Nonrefundable” is therefore a poor substitute for explaining the arrangement.

The Texas Bar Practice Concise Guide to Client Trust Accounts, published June 27, 2025, makes the practical distinction useful for clients: advance fees generally remain client money until earned. A fixed price does not, by itself, turn future work into completed work.

Ask what the payment covers. Is it reserving the lawyer’s availability, paying for a defined task, or funding work billed over time? If the answer changes between the consultation, the contract and the invoice, ask for the difference to be explained in writing.

Make the agreement answer ordinary questions

A fee agreement should help you understand the financial commitment. Before signing, identify the work included, work excluded, separate expenses, and circumstances that could require another payment. An initial deposit and an estimate of the total cost are not necessarily the same thing.

For a flat fee or staged arrangement, ask when each amount becomes earned. “When work begins” may leave you unsure what happens if representation ends shortly afterward. Request an explanation tied to the actual services and applicable rules, rather than relying on a reassuring phrase.

Keep the signed agreement, payment receipts and each version of the firm’s proposed terms. If a later bill uses a different rate or a new description of the arrangement, those records help identify the change. They also give an independent adviser something concrete to examine.

Our coverage of alleged fee harvesting asks whether financial incentives serve the client. Reporting on the probate fee machine raises related concerns about inheritances consumed by legal bills. The useful starting point in your own matter is the agreement and supporting records, not an assumption that another family’s experience proves what happened to you.

Ask for the accounting, not another assurance

Current Texas Rule 1.15 addresses safekeeping property. It requires client funds held by a lawyer to be kept separate from the lawyer’s property and requires a full accounting on request. Where the lawyer holds funds in which ownership is disputed, the disputed portion must remain separate until the dispute is resolved. Undisputed funds are a different matter.

A practical written request can ask the firm to identify:

• Payments received and the purpose assigned to each.
• Work and expenses charged against those payments.
• Amounts transferred as earned fees and the basis for treating them as earned.
• The remaining balance and any amount the firm says is disputed.

Compare the response with your invoices, receipts and correspondence. A discrepancy calls for an explanation; it is not automatically proof of theft. Missing entries, unexplained transfers or repeated refusals to account deserve careful documentation and independent advice.

Read dispute provisions too. Our discussion of the arbitration trap follows one campaign dispute. Whether an arbitration clause affects your own options depends on the agreement and applicable law.

When the relationship ends

Current Texas Rule 1.16 requires reasonably practicable steps to protect a client’s interests when representation ends, including returning an advance payment that has not been earned or incurred. Rule 1.04 prohibits illegal or unconscionable fees. Neither means every disappointing result entitles a client to a full refund.

Request a final accounting and preserve the response. If there is an approaching hearing or another urgent deadline, address representation promptly while the money dispute is being examined. A billing disagreement should not distract from protecting the underlying case.

Jeff Morgan’s commentary on bar complaints discusses accountability concerns. It is commentary, not an official complaint form or a decision about your fee.

For broader campaign reporting, see Damn Lawyers, resources for probate victims, and the separate materials on court-accountability resources. Those materials concern their own allegations and records; they are not evidence about an unrelated lawyer.

A client should be able to ask where the money went and receive an intelligible answer. Start there, with the contract and the accounting side by side.

Questions behind the campaign records

The questions about a fee should continue beyond its label. The campaign’s published filings include questions about how fees accumulate. Another examines advice about continuing litigation. A third concerns the terms of representation. These are separate allegations, not disciplinary findings.

Other submissions ask what clients knew about professional connections when choosing a lawyer. They also raise questions about independent representation during estate administration. A further account concerns understanding a fee agreement before signing.

The record concerning an arbitrator’s disclosures raises a different part of the accountability question. Each filing needs to be read alongside its supporting materials and any response or decision. These campaign records do not establish facts about a reader’s own fee agreement, and they imply no endorsement by the people or institutions discussed in this article.

The campaign’s calls for legislative reform describe changes sought by families; those proposals should be distinguished from current law.

General information, not individual legal advice. Rules and remedies vary by jurisdiction and circumstances. Thumbnail: AI-assisted editorial illustration; no actual client file is depicted.