ComplaintsforBennington Law Firm, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  12/29/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired the B********* Law firm for representation in a civil matter. The agreement was pretty standard and listed the fee agreement including what constituted a fee as well as the sentence, " We will assign tasks to the lawyer, paralegal, law clerk or secretary who can accomplish those tasks in the most expedient an cost efficient manner". Also stated was "fully informed of time expended..." and "we will always contact you to seek your authority before making decisions involving significant expenses or case strategy" The law firm used a billing strategy contrary to these statements. The most egregious, unethical billing practice was each attorney in the practice billing hours for talking about the case with another firm attorney and/or getting approval from the principal, Elisabeth B*********, who would also bill for these hours/minutes. This is in direct contradiction to the "assign tasks..." statement above. With that, there was never any authority sought for these actions, from the client(me), as stated in the fee/retainer agreement. This increased the bills exponentially while not actually providing a service. Now, the firm has taken a step to assign some of 1099(services/bad debt?) as a threat to pay these unauthorized, unnecessary fees. Resolution is removal of threat, discharge of erroneous fees and amicable separation. Attaching fee agreement with a sample month of billing. More available upon request.

  Business response

  01/06/2023

  RE: ID No. ******** 
  
  I am in receipt of your letter dated December 29, 2022 regarding a complaint filed against me by my former client, **** ******. I take issue with the filing for a number of 
  reasons. 

  
  Our office provided *** ****** with notice of the outstanding balance, repeatedly, in the form of monthly invoices for over a year and *** ****** did not respond. After nearly a year of a carried balance, with no attempt to satisfy the same, we then provided *** ****** with a 30-day notice of intention to issue a 1099 and write off the bad debt. At no point did *** ****** dispute the existence of the debt or our proposed action. Per his retainer agreement dated April 3, 2020, *** ****** was aware of the scope of our billing practices and expectations for payment. *** ******'s balance was high as he was involved in 3 areas of active, daily, on-going litigation for a custody case, for which we were successful, a child support action and a divorce action. 

  
  I do not believe a small business owner like myself needs to carry an account receivable for years, nor is the business obligated to enter into potentially costly and protracted litigation to sue *** ****** for fees. 
  
  My office took action-- action which is not prohibited to me ethically or legally. It is actually a fair and proportionate remedy, particularly for the client, who, whether like it or not, still receives a windfall in comparison to tax liability and amount of debt. 
  

  Very truly yours, 
  **** *** 
  Elisabeth B********* 
  

  
  

  Customer response

  01/25/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  Based on Elisabeth B*********'s reply it appears that she is unaware of what her fee agreement states, which is : "We do not charge for secretarial or clerical time. We will assign tasks to the lawyer, paralegal, law clerk or secretary who can accomplish those tasks in the most expedient and cost-efficient manner. We will keep you fully informed of the time expended for conferences, telephone calls, reviewing messages, drafting documents, legal research, court appearances, docket entries, and travel time." It also appears that, based on her response the concept of fraudulent, unethical and contradictory to agreement billing practices, alludes her. And for Elisabeth's response to be as condescending to think that she is doing me a favor by reporting something to the IRS versus her addressing her fraudulently billing hundreds of sidebar "conversations" with her partners is downright concerning that the Bar would allow someone like this to be a member. I am aware the attorney world is full of cronyism(friends police friends) and nothing will come of formal complaints but true and correct information must be reported to consumers.
  
  Regards,
  
  **** ******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩