Dealing with Lawyers tip- email don't call

My husband, who is trying to take over the care of his mother from the other side of the country is dealing with lawyers, very expensive $150-$300 an hour lawyers, who specialize in elder law. He wants to call them about this that and the other thing.

Voice is a lovely thing, however at $2.50 or $5 a minute a guy who punctuates his speech with a lot of "and um, and um, ums" and pauses while he gathers his thoughts should stay the hell away from the phone with people so damned expensive. But he loves talking with people, even if he doesn't know what questions to ask.

These lawyers have email. It is just a matter of getting my wonderful husband to use that instead of expensive calls.

Don't I sound frustrated?

If I could actually do something I would, but I have no legal standing in any of this.

The other problem is all this is confusing so a phone call seems like a waste when you need the lawyer to explain, AGAIN, what the heck you need to do. In an email, you can go back and read the email.

However, email isn't the end all. You can get forms but you can't send them back to the lawyer via email. We were trying to be careful with Mom's social security number, which I've nearly memorized. So at $44 a pop we mail things via FedEx to the lawyer that can't go into a drop box where we hope the folks at the law office doesn't email to someone in their office.

The lawyers tell us that Mom's estate or the "conservatorship" will reimburse us.... well when we thought there was money left, we believed that. But it appears there is no money, and we will have to dip into our own savings. I'm going to get pissy, my savings, as I'm the breadwinner and it was my system of saving and my larger earnings that made that saving possible. Financial management is not my husband's strong suit, nor his sister's.

We already ate through the $5000 retainer and he's been told there is another $5000 bill waiting for him when the lawyer's work is done.