I retained attorney to handle a wrongful termination arbitration case (I had been fired).
The lawyer kept assuring me that the case was a "no-brainer", and asked several times for "more money to pursue your case". On the date of the hearing, they charged a large sum of money to my credit card (without authorization) as "pay for his services".
When the hearing finally happened, I arrived to be told by my attorney that we didn't have a case. My former employer offered a "settlement" that this bozo lawyer told me to accept saying that at least I would get something instead of nothing. I signed after he convinced me I had no choice.
The day after the hearing, I started to think about what was said by my former employer, and what my lawyer said, and started to think he was totally off-base. I did some quick research on the net and found *several* laws and court cases that totally contradicted what had been said.
The agreement had a clause in it that allowed a period of time during which either party could revoke the agreement. So, I tried to contact my attorney to find out about these cases and laws to see if they applied and if we should break the agreement and go back to arbitration or to court. He never responded.
I got a check from my former employer that was supposed to be the amount we had settled for. It was about one-third the actual amount. I tried to contact the lawyer again, and no answer.
After the time allowed for revoking the agreement passed, I still hadn't heard from this lawyer, so I wrote him asking for my papers back so I could contact another attorney to see what could be done. This, I got a response to - the attorney said "no problem".
A month later, I still hadn't gotten the papers. So, I sent another note. In reply, I got a "final bill" that was not only more than what we agreed to when I hired him but was nearly three times the amount I received in the settlement!!!
I wrote him a very long (8-pages) letter stating why I didn't think the bill was correct and making a "counter-offer". The counter-offer included reversing the charge to my credit card and returning my papers. I also said that if they worked to fix the problems with the agreement, I would pay them some more money. Otherwise, I demanded that they refund all of my money since they had botched the job.
A couple of weeks later, I got a package in the mail which included about half of my papers, and an agreement to my counter-offer. The charge didn't get reversed. I waited, and waited, and waited. I sent them another letter.
In response, I got a law suit where he notified me that he was filing a suit to recover his fee, in full, which was now about $500 more than it had been!
A few other points:
In NJ, lawyers are required to put their fees into writing. He never did, except for the periodic "bills" I received. These don't satisfy the requirement.
He not only charged my credit card without authorization, when I disputed the charge, he told the bank that the charge was justified and demanded that they not reverse the charges. He never provided any proof of authorization (a violation of federal law).
His "final bill" wasn't a final bill since more kept getting added on. He now expects me to pay for his letters to the bank on the charge dispute, his letters to me demanding payment, and other charges that have never been itemized.
His "final bill" states that interest will be charged on outstanding balances after 10 days. In NJ, he can't do that unless it was discussed when he was hired (it wasn't) and if it's in the written agreement. See above about the written agreement. Also, interest can't start until 30 days have passed but that's a moot point since it's been several months already.
He deducted a sum of money from the "escrow account" but didn't account for it. It's marked only as "payment for invoice #x".
The arbitrator recently sent me a bill telling me that she sent three copies of the bills to the attorney and it was never paid. Aside from the fact that the attorney didn't pay the bills, nor turn them over to me, he deducted the money in the paragraph above at about the time that they told me over the phone that they needed money to pay the arbitrator. I believe it was deducted to pay the arbitrator but was never sent to her.
This attorney lied to me on several occasions. I won't go into details here because it's complicated. But, I can prove at least one of those occasions.
Of course, this is all a very brief description. There are many more details that show how bad this guy is.
All in all, this attorney left me in a worse position after hiring him, than I was in before I hired him. He committed fraud, deception, malpractice, and proved himself thoroughly incompetent as an attorney. But, he's very competent as a con artist.
STAY AWAY!!!
Saul
Passaic, New Jersey
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Attorneys and Lawyers.
Sean Callagy Reviews
I retained attorney to handle a wrongful termination arbitration case (I had been fired).
The lawyer kept assuring me that the case was a "no-brainer", and asked several times for "more money to pursue your case". On the date of the hearing, they charged a large sum of money to my credit card (without authorization) as "pay for his services".
When the hearing finally happened, I arrived to be told by my attorney that we didn't have a case. My former employer offered a "settlement" that this bozo lawyer told me to accept saying that at least I would get something instead of nothing. I signed after he convinced me I had no choice.
The day after the hearing, I started to think about what was said by my former employer, and what my lawyer said, and started to think he was totally off-base. I did some quick research on the net and found *several* laws and court cases that totally contradicted what had been said.
The agreement had a clause in it that allowed a period of time during which either party could revoke the agreement. So, I tried to contact my attorney to find out about these cases and laws to see if they applied and if we should break the agreement and go back to arbitration or to court. He never responded.
I got a check from my former employer that was supposed to be the amount we had settled for. It was about one-third the actual amount. I tried to contact the lawyer again, and no answer.
After the time allowed for revoking the agreement passed, I still hadn't heard from this lawyer, so I wrote him asking for my papers back so I could contact another attorney to see what could be done. This, I got a response to - the attorney said "no problem".
A month later, I still hadn't gotten the papers. So, I sent another note. In reply, I got a "final bill" that was not only more than what we agreed to when I hired him but was nearly three times the amount I received in the settlement!!!
I wrote him a very long (8-pages) letter stating why I didn't think the bill was correct and making a "counter-offer". The counter-offer included reversing the charge to my credit card and returning my papers. I also said that if they worked to fix the problems with the agreement, I would pay them some more money. Otherwise, I demanded that they refund all of my money since they had botched the job.
A couple of weeks later, I got a package in the mail which included about half of my papers, and an agreement to my counter-offer. The charge didn't get reversed. I waited, and waited, and waited. I sent them another letter.
In response, I got a law suit where he notified me that he was filing a suit to recover his fee, in full, which was now about $500 more than it had been!
A few other points:
In NJ, lawyers are required to put their fees into writing. He never did, except for the periodic "bills" I received. These don't satisfy the requirement.
He not only charged my credit card without authorization, when I disputed the charge, he told the bank that the charge was justified and demanded that they not reverse the charges. He never provided any proof of authorization (a violation of federal law).
His "final bill" wasn't a final bill since more kept getting added on. He now expects me to pay for his letters to the bank on the charge dispute, his letters to me demanding payment, and other charges that have never been itemized.
His "final bill" states that interest will be charged on outstanding balances after 10 days. In NJ, he can't do that unless it was discussed when he was hired (it wasn't) and if it's in the written agreement. See above about the written agreement. Also, interest can't start until 30 days have passed but that's a moot point since it's been several months already.
He deducted a sum of money from the "escrow account" but didn't account for it. It's marked only as "payment for invoice #x".
The arbitrator recently sent me a bill telling me that she sent three copies of the bills to the attorney and it was never paid. Aside from the fact that the attorney didn't pay the bills, nor turn them over to me, he deducted the money in the paragraph above at about the time that they told me over the phone that they needed money to pay the arbitrator. I believe it was deducted to pay the arbitrator but was never sent to her.
This attorney lied to me on several occasions. I won't go into details here because it's complicated. But, I can prove at least one of those occasions.
Of course, this is all a very brief description. There are many more details that show how bad this guy is.
All in all, this attorney left me in a worse position after hiring him, than I was in before I hired him. He committed fraud, deception, malpractice, and proved himself thoroughly incompetent as an attorney. But, he's very competent as a con artist.
STAY AWAY!!!
Saul
Passaic, New Jersey
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Attorneys and Lawyers.