The Gorski Firm, A Professional Law Corporation

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2016/01/12) */
Contact Name and Title: *** ***
Contact Phone: XXXXXXXXXX
Contact Email: ***@thegorskifirm.com
For ease of understanding, I believe that a short summary of the issues in this case will assist the Revdex.com prior to reading the detailed
facts of this case
The issue in this case are:
(1) Ms*** incorrectly believes that our firm was paid for services in her case by a legal benefit planWe were not paid anything by the legal benefit plan;
(2) Pursuant to the terms of the agreement with the benefit plan, Ms*** is responsible for paying court filing fees and other hard costs as well as any fees that the plan does not payAt no time did Ms*** pay the court's filing fee;
(3) Ms*** failed to come in and finalize her documents with our firm; and
(4) Ms*** failed to pay the court's filing fee
Ms*** retained our firm on November 15, under a legal plan benefit through Legal EasePursuant to the terms of the agreement with Legal Ease (the "Plan"), the Plan pays a discounted hourly rate for hoursOnce the hours are exhausted, the plan requires that the member receive a 25% discount off the attorney's hourly ratePursuant to the agreement with Legal Ease, Ms*** is responsible for any court filing fees and any attorney fees not covered by the Plan
The Plan provided an authorization for our services on October 24, But Ms*** did not execute the fee agreement until November 15, She missed three appointments to sign the fee agreement on November 5, 2013, November 7, and November 13,
The court's filing fee in November for a dissolution was $Accordingly, pursuant to the terms of the Plan, Ms*** is responsible for payment of the filing fee
We prepared documents for Ms***'s divorce case and she came in to review them on March 31, but she did not pay the funds for the court's filing feeWe informed her that we could not file anything until the court's filing fee was paidShe informed us that she did not have the funds to pay the filing fee and that she did not want to move forward
On April 22, 2014, the Plan sent a second authorization for services providing the same benefits as the first authorizationWe responded to the Plan requesting clarification because Ms*** told us she was not going to move forwardOn April 23, 2014, Ms*** *** with the Plan responded stating that Ms*** spoke with them and stated that she had not done anything past the free consultationThat Ms*** would reach out to us to address concerns and move the case forward
We were willing to continue representing Ms*** because it seemed that she would be able to move forward with her obligations for us to finalize the case and file it with the court
From the first contact with Ms*** to April 28, 2014, she did not make any payments on her accountShe made a $payment on April 29, and a $payment on May 28, These payments aggregate $and are less than the court's filing fee of $that Ms*** is required to pay under the PlanAccordingly, at no point in time were there enough funds on Ms***'s account to pay the court's fees or process server fees or other hard costsMs*** was told both on April 29, and May 28, that the entire court's filing fee needed to be paid in full prior to any filing with the court
She missed multiple appointments to finalize her documents on 4/24/2014, 6/26/2014, 7/01/2014, and 7/18/
On October 17, 2014, *** *** with the Plan contacted us inquiring as to the status stating that, "Client said that it has been a year and attorney has not filed anything." This is true because as of October 17, 2014, Ms*** neither came in to finalize her document nor to pay the court's filing feeWe cannot move forward with her case if she fails to sign documents or pay the court's filing fee
On October 17, 2014, Ms*** contacted our office and requested a copy of her fee agreement with the firmThe same was e-mailed to her at ***@co.kern.ca.us and ***@gmail.com on October 17,
On March 6, 2015, Ms*** filed divorce proceedings with another attorney
On September 16, 2015, *** *** with the Plan contacted us inquiring as to the status of the caseIt is important to note in his inquiry he stated, "Member says that she paid $Member now says that she paid over $5,to the Attorney, never got a receipt for any paymentThe member had me on speaker phone and her "husband/ex-husband" intercepted in the callHe also claims that the Attorney took money an never filed anythingWhen questioning the client to clarify, her story constantly changedShe said that she still had the original e-mail and could resend doc, then not able to send due to the company changing the e-mail systemAt the beginning of the call, she also said that she did send in a receipt, but later says that she did not get a receipt from the Attorney." MrPrice's interaction with Ms*** regarding story changing is consistent with our experiencesAdditionally, she never paid our firm $5,despite her statement to the contraryShe was requested to produce documentation of the $5,payment both by the Plan and our firm but she never produced any documentation
On December 4, 2015, Ms*** came in without an appointment and requested a copy of her court fileShe was informed to come back on Monday so that we could make a copy for our office and would provide her the originalShe did not come back in for the file
On December 14, 2015, Ms*** sent an e-mail making various threats to sue our office and report us to local mediaWe interpreted the main point of this e-mail to be a request for her fileWe e-mailed a copy of her file to her on December 15, at ***@gmail.com
On December 15, 2015, Ms*** responded stating that she suffered loss of wages, her children were involved in a CPS case as a result of our firm, and that she has an attorney filing a civil suit against meI responded that since she is represented by counsel in the matter, I am unable to talk with her pursuant to my ethical obligations with the State Bar that prohibit me from talking with a represented party
Further, on December 15, 2015, Ms*** sent an e-mail confirming and admitting that she never came back to our office
On December 16, 2015, Ms*** e-mailed contradicted her December e-mail by stating that she is not yet represented by counsel but that she is retaining counsel to sue our firmShe further stated in this e-mail, "we both know legal ease hours covered the one hour meeting we had other than nothing else was ever done or action took on my case." Ms*** is mistaken in this statement for a few reasonsFirst, Legal Ease did not pay any money to our firmSecond, Ms*** is responsible for all attorney fees not paid by Legal EaseThird, Ms*** is required to pay for her meetings with me as well as document preparation and all work done on the case which far exceeds the $that Ms*** paid
Ms*** further stated in her December 16, e-mail, "I have my original copies from the beginning so please no need to resend"I have no idea how she is stating that she has her original copies from the beginning but then tells both the Plan and Revdex.com that we are not producing copies of documents
On December 17, 2015, the Plan contacted us stating that Ms*** contacted them stating that she wanted a copy of her fileWe responded stating that we already provided a copy and that she is able to come in person and pick up the file too
Based on our long history in responding to the inquiries with both Ms*** and the Plan, it seems that Ms*** is under the impression that Legal Ease paid our firm moneyLegal Ease has not paid any money in this caseFurther, pursuant to the agreement between Ms*** and the Plan, Ms*** is responsible for any fees that the Plan does not coverBased on the time spent on this matter, Ms*** owes us money as the $paid does not cover the time spent on this matter that was not reimbursed by the Plan