Paul E Maineri Attorney at Law, Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 18, 2016/02/25) */
[redacted]Document Attached[redacted]
Attached please find a response from [redacted],
Attorney at Law, Inc. with regard to this complaint.
I was originally hired by Ms. [redacted] on 11/10/2014 in order to complete a highly contested family law...

matter on her behalf. Ms. [redacted] signed our standard Attorney Fee and Cost Agreement, funding it with a $3,500.00 retainer. The agreement spells out, in writing, that the hourly rate for attorney time was $300.00 per hour, the rate for paralegal was $150.00 per hour and the rate for legal secretary was $75.00 per hour. The agreement further indicates, "In the event the initial retainer is spent, the client will be billed for those excess amounts. Client shall render payment within five days. Attorney will refund any unused fees as collected."
Our office negotiated with opposing counsel in this matter with the advice and consent of Ms. [redacted].
Ms. [redacted] received regular monthly invoices from our office indicating and detailing all work done, date it was completed, and charges for each line item. Eventually, Ms. [redacted]'s bill exceeded the initial retainer amount by $977.50 which grew to $1,187.50 without payment. Although the retainer agreement called for our office to withdraw from Ms. [redacted]'s case if any balance is past due, our office kept the file open for some time after that in order to attempt to work out some type of resolution allowing Ms. [redacted] to continue to fund her case and for our office to remain as her attorney of record. There were upcoming hearing and significant work still to be done on her case but we could not fund her case for her. Despite promises by Ms. [redacted], she failed to make payment on the outstanding balance which is still due today. We have sent Ms. [redacted] monthly statements on those amounts which have gone unanswered, until she finally filed a grievance/complaint with the Revdex.com. Our position is simply that the Attorney Fee and Cost Agreement succinctly and clearly spells out the terms of our employment, our office completed all work that we billed for, there was never any flat-rate arrangement to complete her highly litigious case for a set amount of money, rather it was an hourly billing amount, and Ms. [redacted] is still in debt to our office for this amount. Furthermore, Ms. [redacted] never voiced any concern over the services she received by this office until this complaint was filed with the Revdex.com.
We feel, therefore, that her complaint is unjustified and frivolous at best. We would ask that the Revdex.com make a decision accordingly.