how should I proceed

How should I proceed? Call the lawyer and ask him how much for copies.

Randy,

Yes, the Association should have kept a copy of the files they sent for review along with the attorney's advice. Based on your posting, it appears that this didn't happen.

You could contact the attorney and ask to review them. The will do one of three things:

1) Tell you no
2) Pull the records, go through them to pull out work product and copy the rest for you
3) Set up a time for you to come in, pull the records, go through them and pull out work product, allow you to look at the rest of the papers and make copies for you of the one's you want.

No matter how the lawyer responds, the following will most likely be part of the final result of your effort:

1) The advice previously given won't change
2) Costs will be incurred for the lawyers time. You should expect around $150 - $300 per hour (pulling the box, going through the papers, time to make copies, time spent with you while in their office) and the cost of copies (lets say 25 cents per page).

I would say a minimum cost expectation of $50 - $100 for the initial phone call where you explain what you are looking for and why. Not knowing how much copying would be involved you could spend up to another $500 - $1,000 for their time and copies.

I base those costs on when we asked our attorney (this year) what we thought was a simple question. We sent the question via e-mail and attached all the relevant documents. They charged us $550 to answer that question. Two years ago, we had a potential buyer contact our attorney (who was our registered agent) to ask questions about the Association. We received a bill for $60 to cover the 15 min. they spent talking with that person as our registered agent (much longer story associated with that).

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. However, I would take steps (perhaps outlining a procedures policy for discussing things with the attorney) to correct this from happening in the future.

Tim

Were you on the Board when this work was done?

Have you discussed this with the other members of your Board?

Why would this be of interest to you after one year?

I would not support a single Board member taking it upon themselves to review or seek copies of legal work done for the Board. Our Baord has a contact person with our attorney (President) not any member can make requests which might result in additional costs for their own agenda or needs.

How much are you talking about, here?

What do you mean "dispute between two member/"

Was this BOARD business or was this between two homeowners?

There should have been a motion to approve the paying of the bill, anyway. So the ENTIRE board would be at fault.

I'd forget it. Is this where you want to spend your time?

I think the question in everyone's mind is WHY you want to see the attorney's file.

If you are questioning whether the bill should have been paid by the association- this depends on whether it was association business, and whether it was properly approved by the board of directors at the time.

Or are you just on a fishing expedition?

That was the Associations first mistake. They should not become involved in disputes between members unless it directly involves something the HOA is responsible for (common area, etc.).

I agree it sounds like the individual member used the Association attorney as their representative. However, the issue of the Association paying the bill was dealt with by the past board. You are on a new board and should be looking forward. Learn from the mistakes in the past but move forward.

You don't really need to know what was in the files to draft a policy resolution on procedures for contacting the Attorney (prior approval by the board, etc.). You don't need to know all the specifics about the settled issue to draft a policy resolution about when the Association will become involved with disputes between members.

However, if you feel that you need to know everything involved, you should propose the issue to your Board and have them authorize up to $1,000 for the purpose of getting copies of this information. I know if I was on your Board, I would vote against it.

Tim

Larry,

I would agree with this statement except that the President submitted the bill to the Association for payment and the Association paid the bill. Therefore, it would be logical that the previous board know of and apparently approved the actions of the President and the payment of the bill.

Based on this logic, the issue would be with the all members of the past board vs. just the President or Treasurer. Expecting that the Board were all volunteers, this action might be considered a bad business decision vs. a legal claim to recoup the funds.

I'm certainly not defending the action of the previous board. I'm just pointing out a possible conclusion if the decision was challenged in court.

Tim:

My statement that the HOA has a claim against the past-president was based upon this:


This was not an elected board making a judgment call. It was the action of a non-elected single individual acting without any apparent lawful authority using HOA funds to benefit one of his friends.