Eckstein Law Firm P.L.L.C.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/15) */
I received a complaint from [redacted], Number XXXXXXXX and I would like to respond.
[redacted] retained the services of my law firm on June 18, 2014.
Her ex-husband had filed a motion to modify her child support. I initially met...

with her and went over everything. The short of it was that her ex-husband was going to go back to school and was requested that his child support be decreased due to his income going way down.
I reduced my initial retainer from $1,500.00 to $750.00 because that was all she could afford to pay. I worked on her case and she never replenished her retainer. However, I continued to work on her case and we finally had court on September 15, 2014. The case was settled before the trial on that day and she was very happy with the result at that time. We agreed to accept less than what she was getting but more than we would get if he was assessed at minimum wage (the court will always assess someone at minimum wage no matter if they are working or not for purposes of chid support). Additionally on that day at court her mother wrote me a check for $300.00 dollars.
There was some subsequent paper work that had to be filed and so that increased her outstanding balance. She asked if she could make payments on the balance as she was short of money due to having to move. She was then dating a married guy and the two of them were going to get a new house. I agreed and she made another payment in November of 2014 for another $300.00. At the end of 2014 her balance was $2,232.00. In April of 2015 she made a payment of $1,500.00 which left her balance at $833.95.
Every month I would send her an invoice and ask her to pay her balance. To date she has not. So recently I sent her an e-mail and asked her what she planned on doing about her balance. I told her with the end of the year coming I was going to turn it over to collections is she was going to refuse to pay it. She sent me an e-mail that she I had agreed to "write off" the balance. This is a total lie because lawyers are unable to write of unpaid balances. We just can't do that. There is no tax advantage or anything like that.
The bottom line as far as I am concerned is that she got what she wanted and then stopped paying until I threatened to sue her. That is when she told me that she would not use me in the future and she was going to tell anyone who would listen that I was terrible and that I didn't return phone calls. All of which is just untrue.
I went out of my way to allow her to make payments to try and help her out. Without me she most likely would not have been able to have an attorney. I don' know of any other attorneys that allow clients to do that. Additionally, she got an invoice from me every month, which she simply ignored.
I fought hard for her and the stuff she put in the complain about not even going in front of the judge is untrue. We had several court appearances. She was at most of them and at the final one we were set for trial and we got it worked out the day of trial at court. She is just the kind of person that runs up a bill and when I pushed her to pay it off she does this. Her boyfriend, whom she referred to me was the same way. He was very slow to pay and ultimately decided to proceed without an attorney because he didn't want to pay me.
The thing about [redacted] is that she works full time and her boyfriend works and they have rental properties, they just don't want to pay their bills.
In my opinion she is simply using your organization to try and retaliate for me making her pay my bill. If she truly felt this way why didn't she make this complaint last year? She is just trying to get out of paying her bill.
Please let me know if you need any additional information. Thank you for the opportunity to tell my side of the story.
[redacted]
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/12/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I knew that filing a complaint against a "lawyer" opened up a chance for him to post lies about me, and that's exactly what he did.
First I'd like to point out that [redacted] didn't mention ANYTHING about my final papers that he still hasn't given to me.
I'd like to address just a few of the lies he made up about me in his response.
1. He only charged me $750 for the retainer because I was a friend of a lady he knows. I didn't ask for this. It was offered.
2. I was not happy with how things went at court that day.
3. I never told him I was moving during this process. My child support got lowered and I'm paying a "lawyer" an outrageous amount of money. I have no idea where he got the idea I was moving.
4. [redacted] is making this personal and is attacking my character. I was dating a man who had been separated for over a year and his divorce was in process, but regardless what does that have to do with my case?! Nothing at all!!!
5. He did not send me an invoice every month like he claims and I have proof of that.
6. He never told me he was going to send this to collections. He only threatened to sue me.
7. I did not get what I wanted and I was more than willing to pay when the job was complete, but remember, he has not given me the final papers and he said nothing about that in his response because he knows he hasn't sent them to me.
8. He did not fight for me AT ALL.
9. My ex boyfriend did pay [redacted]. He CHOSE to proceed on his own because [redacted] did a horrible job and since [redacted] charged him so much he couldn't afford another attorney.
10. We do not have rental property. I don't know where he came up with that.
11. I have no problem paying my bills, but again the job is not complete since I still don't have the final papers...15 months after the court date. But [redacted] doesn't want to talk about that!
12. I'm not using this organization for retaliation. I simply want others to know not to use this guy for any legal services they need. He doesn't return phone calls or emails once he has your money. And when he does it's not in a timely manner at all. Oh but on Oct. 29th he sent me a text message saying that Facebook had me on his friend suggestions and he just asked how I was doing. I responded that I was doing great and asked him how he was. He said he was doing good and asked me how my ex boyfriend is doing. I say this to point out that he never mentioned me paying him anymore money.
I didn't file this complaint before now because I kept giving him chances to get the final papers to me, which never happened. I realized that trying to talk to him wasn't going to work when he threatened to sue me. Regardless of the lies he has told about me, I'm not looking for anything more than what he promised me in his office in April...that he would write off the remaining balance of $833.95 and get the final papers to me.
I appreciate the chance to respond to his lies and set the record straight.
[redacted]