A contract is an agreement, not a piece of paper. If you all agreed that he would represent you, than he was bound to do so, no matter what got written down.
That, at least, is the theory. There are of course many, many steps between a theoretical case and successful claim. And it's certainly easier to win a case if you have a written contract as evidence --- though 20 people's testimony is pretty strong evidence, too.
I am not (quite) a lawyer, and certainly not in your country. But it doesn't sound like you did anything wrong: it sounds like fraud.
I get where your questions are coming from but the real problem was that we were first a family then business people. In my culture, there is a alot of respect accorded to the elderly. We brought up not to question people older than us. So much so I struggled at work to call people older than me by their first name.
It is fraud. Some of the family members wanted us to get the others arrested but this isn't so easy when you are family. It literally ends up with you getting your cousin's dad arrested, the same cousin you grew up playing soccer with. We collected money for a lawyer to sort it out but that dragged on and on.
I now have first had experience of the saying that "the love of money is the root of all evil". None of us had quit our jobs so we moved on. I hold no grudge, just took the lessons.
> Some of the family members wanted us to get the others arrested but this isn't so easy when you are family. It literally ends up with you getting your cousin's dad arrested, the same cousin you grew up playing soccer with
I grew up in the Southeastern US. Here, getting your cousin's dad arrested is a Tuesday. ;)
In all seriousness, sorry you had to go through this, and glad you took away good lessons. On the other side of the coin, never feel guilty about getting what's owed to you.
You're the only one you can trust to have your interests at heart.
That, at least, is the theory. There are of course many, many steps between a theoretical case and successful claim. And it's certainly easier to win a case if you have a written contract as evidence --- though 20 people's testimony is pretty strong evidence, too.
I am not (quite) a lawyer, and certainly not in your country. But it doesn't sound like you did anything wrong: it sounds like fraud.