"Further, throughout this entire process, apparently I was accruing fees which were non-transparent to me until 6 months later when I received a check [I think

"Further, throughout this entire process, apparently I was accruing fees which were non-transparent to me until 6 months later when I received a check [I think he means bill] that was about 3 times what we had originally negotiated." A bill from a law firm is normally more like a proposal / starting negotiation point :)