Law Offices of Jef Henninger Reviews (%countItem)
Law Offices of Jef Henninger Rating
Address: 788 Shrewsbury Ave, Tinton Falls, New Jersey, United States, 07724-3080
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This guy is a snake oil salesman. Use caution and read all the *** reviews. If you are still considering hiring him just take the money he quotes you, double it, and flush the money down the toilet, better result.
I retained Mr. Heninnger approx Feb of 2018. I wanted to initiate divorce proceedings against my abusive ex husband, who I had made several police complaints against. I was almost destitute, but I scraped $2000 together for a retainer. Mr. Heninnger assured me $2000 would cover the divorce.
However, I was having a very difficult time in my life - a very sick child, home was in foreclosure, out of work. It became clear to me that the timing of this was not right. I did not have the time or energy to fill out paperwork and track down tax returns. In April, I and my chronically ill child were evicted from my home. I needed to postpone divorce proceedings until I had a home for my son, and a job. Mr. Heninnger told me this was impossible; that I had to go through with it. He has a very abrupt and bullying manner, and I was at the lowest point of my life. I was afraid that I had wasted the only money I had by giving him the $2000, so I allowed him to badger me into going forward.
I was jobless, homeless and on food stamps - which he knew. Instead of letting me postpone this, he instead let me use all of my retainer WITHOUT INFORMING ME THAT IT WAS USED UP. He then charged me his exorbitant $400/hr rate - 1/10 of an hour every time he left me a 2 second voicemail. As if I was a wealthy person! He actually charged for a conference the day I drove all the way to HIS office to drop off paperwork.
He knew I was a struggling, homeless single mother with a son in and out of the hospital - but felt no need to tell me that I had used up all of my retainer and that the bill was almost double what we had originally agreed on.
I told Mr. Heninger I could make $100 a month payments, but the job I finally found is only temporary and I will be out of work after this week. I will not pay him and take food out of my kid's mouth! I am filing complaints with every organization I can. This man should not be allowed to continue his reprehensible business practices.
signed a fee agreement which is attached. Same indicates that we may exceed her retainer and that we will likely not know when this occurs. It also indicates that we bill for all work done. In other words, there is nothing in the fee agreement to indicate that we will work for free for any reason. *** was very difficult to reach and her divorce case was almost dismissed. I had to contact her numerous times to remind her that we had a deadline coming up. Her case almost got dismissed but we got it in right under the deadline. Had I not kept up on her, it would have in fact been dismissed.
We sent her the bill and she asked for a payment plan. She did not dispute any of the charges. We subsequently got a message from her that she lost her job, wasn't sure if she wanted to pay the charges but that she would also do everything she could to make sure that she didn't have to pay the charges. That was a little extreme and if she had any issue she could have picked up the phone to discuss same with me. I then received this Revdex.com complaint. Before I even had the chance to respond to it, she then contacted this office to indicate that she would be resuming her payments to this office.
Clearly losing a job can put someone under a lot of stress so it seems to me that the emotional issues related to same caused her to take this action. With everything settled down, it appears that this issue has been resolved.
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:Lawyers will often refer to agreements they have with clients as evidence that a client agreed to certain payment terms. But clients seldom have the experience or the resources to negotiate every detail of their engagement agreement. I believe a court would recognize this on my behalf. Lawyers have form agreements that clients typically sign with little or no explanation, much less negotiation. I believe my bill was unreasonably high as a result of unethical layering, waste and incompetence. The prospect of fighting this person over a fee is a daunting task, as I am a single mother of a chronically ill child. Jef Henninger will no doubt use his superior experience in fighting this against me. I don't have the time or the energy to argue over bills; I'm raising a family and trying to make a life for myself and my child. In my limited knowledge, however, I know that the American Bar Association has Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and Rule 1.5 states "(a) A lawyer shall not make an agreement for, charge, or collect an unreasonable fee or an unreasonable amount for expenses."I retained this attorney asking that the process not cost more than $2000. He assured me it would not, but of course that was verbal - not in writing. He ultimately billed me almost twice that. It many reviews that I read of Jef Henninger's services, it appears that so many people had the same experience. Was it "legal" of him to rack up another $1500 in fees without letting me know? Yes. But was it ethical? I told this man repeatedly that I had been EVICTED FROM MY HOME. That I was ON FOOD STAMPS. That I was UNEMPLOYED because I am the sole caretaker of a chronically ill, repeatedly hospitalized child. Was billing me far beyond my retainer without notifying me the right thing to do? It was not. I also asked him repeatedly to put the process on hold, as I was in no condition to follow through on the divorce while homeless. He and his associates just steamrolled over me, insisting that it could not be postponed. I was terrified at the prospect of losing the $2000, retainer, which is a great deal of money to me. I tried, very ineffectively, to pursue the divorce but I was in over my head. Why could he not have assisted me in putting this on hold until I was ready to deal with it? That would have been the right thing to do. Not the most profitable thing, but certainly the right thing to do. Also, the derisive remarks he made about my emotional state in his response to my claim seem inappropriate, if not illegal. Was it professional of him to post: "Clearly losing a job can put someone under a lot of stress so it seems to me that the emotional issues related to same caused her to take this action."? He is making statements about my mental health in a public forum. If I called his office to say I would be making a payment arrangement, it was to stop his team from flooding my inbox and voice mail with messages harassing me. I'm currently out of work. I couldn't pay this bill if I wanted to. I also don't want to, and shouldn't have to.
Regards
I hired Mr. Henninger to represent me. He told me on the phone that the fee would be $1500.00 and to mail it to his office. I mailed the check, and after they received it, his office then stated they needed me to sign an agreement. This was a 'retainer agreement' for $1500.00, and there was nothing stating that the costs would not exceed $1500.00 as discussed. I called Mr. Henninger with my concerns, and he assured me that the purpose of the agreement was to deal with people who might be calling his office frequently with questions and taking up a lot of time with questions, and that the costs shouldn't exceed the $1500.00. I never once called his office until it was nearly a week prior to my court date and I still had not heard from anyone to confirm someone would be at my court date to represent me. When it came to the actual court date, we were at court for less than 2 hours. The prosecutor agreed to drop the case since they did not file the paperwork within the time period required by law. There was no trial, and in my opinion the case and representation I received could not have went any smoother. I was satisfied, until weeks later I receive an email from his office with an invoice stating I owe them an additional $1387.50. Considering the fact that the case was dropped so easily, I do not understand how Mr. Henninger could tell me it should costs NO MORE than $1500.00, and then sends me a bill after the fact for nearly double. I believe that Mr. Henninger knew all along that the costs would be nearly double, since there is no less time that could have been put into it than what was; there was no trial and there were no excessive or frequent phone calls from me. While his billing may be accurate according to what was done, I believe he flat out lied to me when he stated the costs should be no more than $1500.00, and he only used a lower 'quote' to get me to agree to use him and sign his retainer agreement under false pretenses.