In June we contacted Benjamin Legal Services to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Our initial contact with a “lawyer, ” Chris Utley, seemed to be great and very knowledgeable. We had our counseling session with him, set up everything with paperwork (agreement), provided necessary documents, and finished paying our fee of $2350. They have stated we have paid less (see attached bank statements). We went without contact with him for a month between October and November and couldn’t get a hold of him. We left many, many messages. Then the firm’s phone number had changed and we couldn’t get a hold of anyone, and my creditors were calling us constantly. We finally found their new number and after numerous phone calls we FINALLY got in with a legal secretary, Jan Juricisan, who was intervening for us. For 2 months we were communicating with her to get a word from the paralegal that was supposedly preparing our petition.
We received the petition around Feb. 1st 2013. To our surprise it was for Chapter 13. We never discussed filing Chapter 13 with Chris Utley. I called Jan with many questions asking who, what, when and why we have a petition for 13 when we were never told we didn’t qualify for 7. She said she would get me a local attorney to discuss the final petition and to answer questions. I heard from her within 3 days with a lawyer’s name in Richmond, Jim Bowman. Apparently, their process is to assign you to a local attorney to finalize the petition. I contacted Mr. Bowman and he said he hasn’t worked for Benjamin Legal in months.
I called Jan back and asked to speak to one of the partners immediately. A few days later I was in touch with Kevin Benjamin. I first asked why Chris Utley hasn’t contacted us and he said he hasn’t worked for them in months (go figure). I explained the situation to Kevin, and asked him obvious questions concerning the petition. He barely gave me a 3 minute run down, didn’t answer my questions, assured me nothing was wrong with the paperwork, and he was very curt and rude, and basically said this petition is no big deal. He continued to say “So you didn’t qualify for 7 but sign the paperwork for 13 and we will be done with it.” I asked him to please reassign us to another attorney in Richmond to discuss, correct errors, and POSSIBLY finalize this. We have still not heard from a local attorney, NOR has Kevin called us back after numerous attempts at calling him.
We have asked for our money back and were told on Feb. 26th that we would have it in hand in 30 days. Of course, we don’t. I have called repeatedly and left several messages with Kevin without a return call. Jan told us to get the money returned from the bank but our bank will not return funds if they were made over 60 days ago.
On April 23rd (almost 60 days later) I asked Jan to just find us another attorney to review the petition. I have found errors in the petition and we need to discuss. That was weeks ago and still have not heard from a VA attorney representative of their firm. They have also told me that the attorney they are assigning us to is the same attorney that told me via email that he no longer works for Benjamin Legal Services.
Unfortunately, I feel as though this is a petition scam that needs to be stopped. Even if we wanted to stay with Benjamin Legal, the fact that they won’t give us a name of an attorney in Richmond to finalize the petition leads me to believe it won’t happen at all!
We are extremely disappointed in the service and feel they are misrepresenting themselves. Our bankruptcy situation is different that why they have led us to believe, leading us to realize that Benjamin Legal does not have our best interest in mind and our petition was put together in a “flash” to just get it done and filed so we would have something tangible to show for our money we have given them. This is not proper representation.
I would sincerely appreciate your effort in bringing these people to justice. I am still praying I can get my money back. As we are in dire straits financially, you can imagine the $2350.00 is a large amount of money for us.
I have contacted the US Board of Trustee here in Virginia. If you are having the same problem with them please join me in contacting the CA Bar Assoc. With complaints.
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