Carlton Legal Services

Thanks to Roland Carlton JR and his office for helping my husband and I for getting our life back on track and making our dream come true. Great service and very helpful. Thank you.

Review: In January 2016, my husband I retained Carlton Legal Services to review a bankruptcy case. We met with Mr. Carlton after completing their client information form. He reviewed and said that he needed to review additional information to determine if we would qualify to file bankruptcy. He was not sure which chapter we could file. The initial consultation was free. We paid the $100 retainer on this visit. We gathered the requested information and returned to the office with our documents, completed forms, and paystubs a couple of weeks later.

I asked [redacted] when I dropped the paperwork off how long it would be before our documents were reviewed and Mr. Carlton could determine which Chapter we could file. I had previously indicated that we were not interested in a Chapter 13. Her reply was within a couple of weeks. We had a pending court case, so timeliness was very important. We needed to resolve this as soon as possible. I contacted [redacted] the following week, she indicated that she would be the person handling our case, just to be sure that she was aware of our situation and timeframe. She asked me if I had included paystubs with the documents. I responded that I had included 6 months of paystubs. Everything that had been requested was submitted to them. She had not yet reviewed anything.

I followed up the next week as the 2 weeks approached, she once again indicated that she had not reviewed any of the documents that I had submitted. She actually requested that we pay an additional $300. I responded this case was supposed to be reviewed within 2 weeks. I will pay the full fee, (we had already paid $100 retainer) once you have reviewed the documents to let us know whether we will be moving forward, whether we can file bankruptcy or not. This was extremely shady. They should have known after the first consultation whether we qualified or not, it did not require any additional payments to determine this. The initial consultation was free. She again stated that she had not reviewed our file, did we submit the pay stubs? YES, we did. I told her that I was coming to pick up my documents. I returned within an hour to retrieve our documents.

[redacted] requested that I write a statement that we no longer wished to retain Carlton Legal Services. I did this. I asked for a refund of the retainer. She stated that she would let Mr. and Mrs. Carlton know about my request, but there was nothing she could about it. I followed up the next day by phone and I was told by [redacted] that Mr. Carlton would review the file and send me a letter. I received a letter dated February 18, 2016 from Mr. Carlton, stating that he had reviewed the time records and determined that the billable time exceeded the $100 retainer. He didn't spend any time on our case, this was the reason I retrieved our documents and moved on. No one in the office was reviewing anything. There was nothing to bill us for. They had simply attempted to exhort money from us and drag this out. There were no services provided by Carlton Legal Services for the money that I had paid.Desired Settlement: I want our $100 retainer refunded immediately.

Business

Response:

Under Bankruptcy law, Debtors are required by law to pay to creditors the monthly amount which they can afford to pay. A low income family can qualify for a chapter 7 bankruptcy because proof can be submitted to the Court that all of the family's household income equals or is below reasonable living expenses. For a higher income family, a chapter 13 is filed so that monthly payments to creditors can be paid over a 3-5 year period under a plan approved by the Court. These monthly payments are based on a detailed analysis of a family's ability to pay by 1) calculating precise income from 6 months of pay data and 2) gathering information for detailed monthly expenses and 3) gathering information about all of a family's assets and 4) gathering information about all of a family's debt. This detailed chapter 13 analysis requires numerous hours of preparation and results in about 60 pages of legal documents. The final result, the family's monthly payment to their creditors through the court approved plan, pays creditors from 5% of their debt to 100% of their debt. The final result is based on the family's ability to pay after complete analysis of their entire financial situation. As Bankruptcy lawyers, we sometimes encounter a problem when wealthier clients do not want to pay any money to their creditors and, instead, want to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy where their creditors receive nothing. This problem occurred for the person making this complaint. Our records show that, during the first consultation, the attorney initially predicted a chapter 13 case because these were wealthier people and a family size of only 3, so this family probably had the ability to make monthly payments to their creditors. However, the day following the first consultation, these clients sent a lengthy email asserting that they should be allowed to file a chapter 7, pay nothing to their creditors, and they wanted to file quickly so that both of them could then find higher paying jobs. Our firm responded that a final determination of the appropriate chapter could only be made after a complete analysis was performed, and we did not even have any documents upon which to begin the analysis. Several weeks later, the clients bring a large stack of documents, but waited only 2 days before sending additional emails asking whether the complete analysis had been performed,whether they could file a chapter 7 bankruptcy or, if not, the amount of monthly payment required in the chapter 13 bankruptcy. In essence, these clients wanted our firm to perform the amount of work which usually takes 8 - 12 weeks for most cases and perform the work in under a week. In fact, these clients terminated our work less than 2 weeks after delivering the large stack of documents. Furthermore, these clients were asking that we perform work valued at approximately $1,200.00 after only paying $100.00. Our time records clearly showed that we had performed about $300 of work before our firm was terminated from representation, and we simply did not seek payment of the additional $200.00. Roland S. Carlton, Jr., Esq.Carlton Legal Services, PLC

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

My complaint is that Mr Carlton did not review the pay stubs nor evaluate which chapter we were eligible to file. As indicated in my initial complaint, these records were left with Mr Carlton's assistant to review and she told me that she would do so within 2 weeks. Mr. Carlton's statement that they were at his office for 2 days is absolutely innacurate, it was 2 weeks. We followed up with a couple calls and emails on progress.We are not wealthy and his overview of our situation is completely off base. There was no work performed by Mr Carlton, because his assistant wasn't even aware that pay stubs had been enclosed with our paperwork. She told me this on the same day that I retrieved our documents, which was 2 weeks later. If any work had been performed, this important detail would have been known. This was the criteria for determining our eligibility to file. Any other attorney contacted is able to assess this criteria on the first free consultation. He should have had a clear answer within 2 weeks as to which chapter we qualified. The initial consultation was free, the retainer was paid to file bankruptcy. This did not happen because this office was not willing to make a reasonable effort to make an evaluation to determine our options. We want our retainer of $100 refunded as no evaluation was made.

Regards,

Review: I was quoted a fee of $1725 which included $250 additional for a possible foreclosure inclusion. I paid this fee in full within 6 weeks of the intital consultation and completed all of the required paperwork and was led to believe that I would qualify for a Chapter 7 Bankrutcy. I met with Mr Carlton one time for less than an hour and the result of this meeting was a Chapter 13 filing where I would end up paying $500 /month for the next 5 years which totals $30k, and is actually more than my total debt. I told him I was not interested in moving forward and would follow up in eary Jan to see if I was going to file at all. I came into the office on Jan 8 and MR Carlton was not in so I wrote a letter stating that I was not moving forward with my case and wanted a refund and needed no further representation. For the next 3 months I called and stopped in the office at least 15 times and was told that he had made no determination as to what he was willing to give me back. I was finally able to set up a phone conversation with Mr Carolton on Thursday April 3 when he told me that he could have kept all of my money but was giving me a refund of only $725. He supposedly cut the check for that amount on the previous day, but as usaul no one had bothered to call me. I am asking for an itemized bill that shows every billable minute of time for my $1000 charge when we never went to court, he never filed the first document with anyone and did not even have the courtesy to have anyone even try tp follow up with me after the January letter stating my cancellation of this contractDesired Settlement: I feel that at most he should have billed me maybe $500 for the meeting and any paperwork done by them, but certainly not $1000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was expecting a refund of at least $1200 of my money!

Business

Response:

I write in response to your letter dated April 14, 104 and in response to the complaint with

your office by [redacted]. Our office occasionally has substantial difficulty with an upper income

greedy person insisting that she is entitled to have all of her debt completely removed by bankruptcy

law without any money paid to unsecured creditors. This type of person has difficulty understanding

that bankruptcy law is not designed in this manner. Under the general design of bankruptcy law,

lower income people will be allowed to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy and all of their debt is legally

removed by a chapter 7 discharge order without payment to creditors. For upper income people,

bankruptcy law provides a chapter 13 bankruptcy option that requires the person to pay all or a

portion of their debt in monthly payments over a 3-5 year period and protects the person from all

types of creditor harassment over that 3-5 year period. Whether an upper income person pays all

of their debt, or a portion of their debt, depends on the actual income of the person. However, for

each person who earns more income than the Virginia state median income, the law strongly

presumes that such a person will use chapter 13 bankruptcy.

[redacted] is an upper income person who makes more than the Virginia median income

for her family size. The only reason I suggested that a chapter 7 bankruptcy may be a possibility on

the first day is because she under-reported her income to me and over-reported her household size.

When I later discovered the truth about this client, my office and I prepared a chapter 13 bankruptcy

petition which was 56 pages long. The bankruptcy petition was ready for signature in November,

2013, but [redacted] insisted that she wanted to file a chapter 7 case because her income would

be substantially decreasing in the near future. I informed her that a chapter 7 was not possible unless

her income actually did decrease, and I agreed to wait for several months to determine if this

decrease would occur. I was never able to determine if the decrease occurred. I invited Ms. [redacted]

to meet with me to discuss the income, change in income, and extra benefits of chapter 13 which is

not experienced in a chapter 7, but Ms. [redacted] refused to meet with me.

Ms. [redacted] believes she is entitled to a full refund, or a substantial refund, because her case

was not filed and she should not have to pay for time spent on her case which occurred without her

presence in the office. However, our firm records show that many hours were spent on her case to

prepare and finalize 56 pages of legal bankruptcy paperwork, and most bankruptcy petition

preparation paperwork is performed without the client's presence. The fee agreement,signed by Ms.

[redacted] before any work began, would allow us to charge $3,000.00 fora chapter 13 bankruptcy case.

However, we charged only $1,000.00 and generously refunded $750.00 to this client. Furthermore,

contrary to her complaint, my firm provided Ms. [redacted] with detailed time sheets and a draft copy

of the bankruptcy petition which we had prepared and was ready for filing.

Therefore, in summary, [redacted] is an upper income person who had the income and

ability to pay her creditors, but she wanted to pay them nothing. When this was not possible

pursuant to bankruptcy law, she insisted on a large refund regardless of the large amount of work

performed by my office in preparing her chapter 13 bankruptcy petition. Her refund from my office

was generous and should not have prompted a complaint to the Revdex.com.

Sincerely,

Roland S. Carlton, Jr., Esq

Attorney at Law

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

All I have to say is WOW!!! This letter just reinforces what I said in my original complaint against this firm.

Any educated individual in Mr. Carlton's positon should not have to resort to name calling and slander to justify his work for a client.

Less than 1/2 of what he stated in his response is the truth, but I refuse to waste any more of my time defending myself. I went to Carlton Legal Service because I was in the middle of a nasty divorce, I was trying to pay my bills, and work and take care of my family and was very plain in my desire to file a Chapter 7, with no interest in Chapter 13...not because I wanted to run away from my debt, but because I could not pay all of the debt and also support my daughter.

I will finish by saying this... He did give me $775 of my $1775 back, and yes he did draw up a 56 page document, that would not have been needed, had he listened to me at our original meeting.

Shame on him and good luck to anyone who chooses this firm!!

Regards,