Lawyer Question -- retainers @@

[hocus2]

We have a lawyer who helped us file due processes against our department of education for violations of FAPE.  Due to our circumstance we have to make a legal filing every year with the DOE.  Our lawyer sent a retainer for next school year and asked us to sign Friday.

I have concerns though and I just wanted to run this by the lawyers on the group.

1. I read the new agreement and it states that the retainer and it clearly states that extras costs might be incurred. I have not received any billing for our current in excess of the retainer. I inquired what it was and she said she'd have to calculate an estimate. Is this odd? It seems really odd to me they are asking for a new retainer before we have any idea of the true costs of the previous work.

2. Inquired about a specific concern that our trial lawyer (not the head of the firm who sent the retainer request) felt we might get ruled against. I am hoping we can prevail though appeals and/or future rulings. I inquired I basically got a shrug. Is this weird? We're really disappointed they think we'll lose this issue. We're very highly likely to prevail on the biggest claim (if you measure it financially) in our filing because the other side didn't make a case (didn't show for the hearing) but this second claim is still very important to us and we've just not gotten any help on it other than we asked and we can't change how they'll rule. The head of our school just called and made an actionable suggestion that my lawyer has never mentioned which is also weird to me.