At our initial consultation with Phillips & Associates a legal fee of $13,000.00 was agreed upon for Phillips & Associates representation of our son in the matters identified in the Scope of Services on the Fee Agreement.
The matters identified in the Scope of Services were the complaints that we believed our son had been cited, based on court documentation that our son had received from his arraignment.
There are eight (8) complaints listed in the Scope of Services. At our sons preliminary hearing it was learned that our son had only been cited for four of the eight complaints listed in the Scope of Services.
Being that the agreed legal fee of $13,000.00 was based on the eight (8) complaints that were initially believed to be filed, not the four (4) that Phillips & Associates subsequently represented our son for, I believe a fee adjustment and refund from Phillips & Associates is in order. I expect the fee to be adjusted accordingly for the services rendered and the balance returned to me. This is only good business practice.
Subsequent to sending my correspondence to the law office of Phillips & Associates I received a letter from them denying any refund.
The letter from Phillips & Associates indicated they had conducted a detail review of the case files and determined the original fee agreement was reasonable for the services provided, thus the do not believe a fee adjustment is appropriate.
The itemization of services document they provided showed a total of 88.27 hours dedicated to the case. The majority of the hours were recorded as phone conversations to my spouse and I, phone calls to others, time charged for the initial attorney appointed that did not produce any results, whom they later fired for his poor performance, etc.
The itemization document also shows charges for visits and/or meetings that the appointed attorney voluntarily attended. He wasn't required to be at these meetings, but wanted to be present because he had never had the opportunity to experience these activities. He took it upon his own to attend these activities.
On several court appearances where the attorney has charged hours, he was also attending other court cases he was assigned at the court, so the total hours he has recorded for those days is false.
The itemization document lacks very little evidence of fact finding and/or investigation of the facts of the case. This firm did nothing for our son and charged us a flat fixed fee based on charges our son was never cited for, and now deny that a refund is in order.
Looking for a law firm... Look elsewhere. Do not retain Phillips and Associates for any matter.
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