Extricating myself from a work contract situation gone bad

[Anonymous]

I am learning a very difficult lesson about never working with or for someone without a contract.

I do independent contract work, mainly for lawyers, and psychologists that work in the family law industry.

I have done some work with the lawyer who handled my divorce. They are still lawyer on record for my divorce, which is long done but a very small property matter is awaiting resolution. This was my first mistake - dual relationship/mixing personal with professional. I had a long history with her and there was a high degree of trust on her end. This was my second mistake because though integrity is my most important value and I take being trustable very seriously, she has different attitudes and I was naive here to see her how I show up, instead of objectively.

I'm mid project with her at the moment. It will be done in 3 weeks. My personal divorce property matter is a few weeks and a trust disbursement away from being done. I have child support issues but will need to retain a new lawyer or go SLP.

I'm scared of repercussions and feeling the pain of making a bad choice to work with her. I was trying to get a contract in place and signed when things really blew up. The more I've learned about her personally from being with her in close proximity, the worse it gets. I was hoping one more project would see my divorce done and then could cut ties. But things have blown up and now she is being very reactive.

Best to rip off the bandaid and cut all ties and deal with whatever happens? She is highly reactive and I feel a bit unsure how bad she would get.

Best to try to go along and get the contract in place and finish my commitment on this project and hopefully my last divorce matter, then cut ties? I'm not sure I want to sign anything at this time. She has refused to sign multiple forms of I've contract that I've done up and used before. Wants to use her own but it never appears.

To be clear, she's at a lot more risk than me, but I play fair and she does not.

I'm seeing first hand especially on this project how bad her relationships are, and how she treats people, a lot of it is disillusioned, and her behaviour is unethical and very inappropriate. To be honest its a similar dynamic to how I feel with what went on with my abusive ex husband.

What I can I do to get out. At the moment we have mostly verbal agreements, my signed copy of her retainer agreement (for my divorce), and a few emails that discussed contract terms for a project two years ago. Her current actions and actions I'm learning about from this last year are reportable.

Any advice? What would you do? It's pretty upsetting for me at the moment.

[Anonymous]

You perceive her as abusive as your abusive exDH.

Refer a colleague to her to complete her work.