Shulman Hodges & Bastian used information that I gave them against me in a fee dispute. I paid this firm an exhorbitant amount of legal fees over the course of 7years to defend me in a bankruptcy case. The services provided were in my opinion sub standard. After paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fee's they still managed to sue me for a remaining balance. I opted for mediation and a date was set. The disputed bill due was approximately $47000. After several phone calls and emails with the partners in the firm we settled on an amount of $20,000 to their firm and an addtional amount to cover the arbitration bills. We asked Mr Hodges for a copy of the arbitration bill from AAA so we could pay it direct. The bill never was given to us to verify the amount. I spoke with Mr. Bastian and informed him that I would send the payment to AAA direct and pay their firm the $20,000
A settlement agreement was drawn up by their firm. The agreement was sent to myself and Walter Weiss for review. I made some small modifications and sent the check to his office via over night mail instead of delivering it in CASH as he requested. I faxed over a copy of the check and signed settlement agreement in good faith. I thought it was OVER He never cashed my checks and instead proceeded to the AAA arbitration without my knowledge or consent.
Mr. Hodges proceeded to arbitration and got a deafult judgement against me for more than double the settlement amount. He then used this default judgement to try and collect a much higher amount than the settlement. He used all the personal information that I gave him and his firm when I was a client (which I thought was protected under attorney client priviledge) against me to collect a default judgement that he attained behind my back.
This is no way to treat a client that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in fee's. He has caused me undue stress, durress, and is continually harrassing me in this collection matter with debtors exams etc... I tired in good faith to settle this... But it seems that with his hard line collections tactics it is impossible.
This matter is under appeal. BEWARE of attorney's and giving them any personal information... I trusted this firm... And they used everything I trusted them with to betray me.
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