Florida Judge Approves Nearly $200K in fees for one divorce case, for one year
A Florida judge recently ruled that nearly $200,000 charged by a divorce to one client for about a year’s worth of work was reasonable.
The judge from Miami-Dade, Judge Maria Elena Verde, ruled that Dori Foster Morales had earned this fees which started in the summer 2020 and ran through June 2021.
The decision can be found here.
“Paragraph 4 of the Court’s August 23, 2021, Order Denying Father’s Exceptions to Report and Recommendations of General Magistrate shall be modified such the legal fees and costs (and attended interest until payment) shall be paid to
Foster-Morales PLLC in the amount of $137,281.79
The ruling also ordered the former husband, Gabriel Shapiro, to pay his wife back $50,382.86, fees she had paid to Foster-Morales for the same time period.
This case, Shapiro Vs. Alcantar is one I covered previously. Shapiro had previously been ordered to pay Foster-Morales’s fees though she was his ex-wife’s attorney; he was also ordered to pay for the Guardian ad Litem and even an attorney the GAL had hired.
Most remarkably, Dori Foster-Morales, who is the outgoing president of the Florida BAR, only ratcheted up the fees after this period.
She charged over $60,000 in July 2021; Foster Morales charged another $47,394.05 for August 2021; She charged $85,482.56 for September and about half of October, when her representation ended.
Her bill was over $200,000 from July 2021 until the end of her representation in October 2021.
That bill from July-October 2021 has yet to be adjudicated.
What did Ms. Alcantar get for her money? She and Shapiro started with a 50/50 custody arrangement.
With Foster-Morales involved, Alcantar received sole custody and Shapiro was relegated to little time with his two children, usually in a supervised manner.
Then, the two decided to negotiate on their own and reached an agreement privately to revert back to 50/50 custody.
Find the interview with Gabe Shapiro below. Shapiro comes on about 38 minutes in.
Find the previous articles in this series. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.
Find the Miami Family Court Mafia T-shirts to raise awareness about this ring.
Get rid of the GALs entirely. These money making schemes at the parents / kids expense is disgusting. Also, court psychologists need to be looked at as well, clearly they don’t know what they are doing either.