Legal Definitions - feemail

Feemail is a slang term referring to an attorney's fee that is obtained through unethical and coercive means, such as intimidation, threats, or undue pressure. It also describes the act or process of demanding or collecting such a fee. Essentially, it's a fee that a lawyer forces a client or another party to pay, rather than one agreed upon freely and fairly.

Here are some examples to illustrate the concept of feemail:

• Imagine a client who has hired an attorney for a relatively straightforward contract review. After the review is complete, the attorney demands an additional, significantly higher "expediting fee" that was never discussed or agreed upon, threatening to withhold the completed contract and refuse to represent the client further unless this new fee is paid immediately. The client, needing the contract urgently for a business deal, feels pressured to pay the unagreed-upon amount.

  This illustrates feemail because the attorney is using the threat of withholding essential services and abandoning the client to extort an additional, unjustified fee.

• Consider a contentious negotiation between a large corporation and a small startup. The corporation's lawyer insists that the startup pay a substantial "legal costs recovery" fee directly to the corporation's legal department as part of any settlement, even though the startup is not legally liable for these costs. The lawyer threatens to prolong the expensive litigation indefinitely, knowing the startup cannot afford a protracted legal battle, thereby coercing them into agreeing to this unwarranted fee to avoid financial ruin.

  Here, the lawyer is employing the threat of prolonged and costly litigation to extort an unjustified "legal costs recovery" fee (feemail) from the opposing party.

• A lawyer representing a powerful landlord informs a tenant, who is already struggling financially, that if they want to avoid a lengthy and public eviction process (even if the tenant believes they have a strong legal defense), they must agree to pay the landlord's legal fees directly to the lawyer's firm, in addition to vacating the premises. The lawyer implies that failure to comply will result in severe reputational damage and further legal expenses for the tenant.

  This scenario demonstrates feemail because the lawyer is using the threat of a damaging legal battle to pressure the tenant into paying the landlord's legal fees, which the tenant might not otherwise be obligated to pay, as a condition for avoiding further conflict.