ComplaintsforPaolucci Law, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  07/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired the Paolucci Law Firm to file my bankruptcy for me and ******* ***** was my attorney in their Parma office. ******* was so unprofessional in handling my bankruptcy such as: No communication, she doesn’t return phone calls, when she sends you emails she doesn’t let you know by giving you a phone call to be looking out for it, when she was suppose to have my documents looked and get back to me within 10-15 days it took her over a month to do so and even at that point she had no communication as to why my documents were not looked over, I called and called and she never returned my phone call until I believe it was after the 4th phone call I had made and even still she didn’t call she sent me an email and once again didn’t make me aware that she was doing so. After I got fed up with the unprofessional way that things were being handled I fired ******* *****. I was entitled to a refund of my money and to this day she won’t even tell me how much that is. On top of that instead of confirming the address with me it was told to me that my check went to the old address. But that was not the address on my paperwork that I gave to her. She said “ that’s the address we have in the computer”. But seeing as though that all my paperwork had my new address on there the professional thing to do was to call and verify the address. They claim the check was sent out on May 11th and that the check hasn’t come back yet. I feel that’s untrue. I still don’t have my refund and she still won’t even disclose to me how much I’m getting back of the money I paid. This entire law firm is very unprofessional even the office in Akron is very unprofessional. All I want is my refund.

  Business response

  07/13/2023

  To Whom it May Concern,
  Ms. *****-****** hired Paolucci Law on February 14, 2022. She signed our “flat fee contract for services” and paid $1400 in attorney fees and a portion of the filing fee over the next 8 months. Once the fees were paid on May 24, 2022, I immediately sent Ms. *****-****** her petition that day, along with instructions, which included a detailed list of items she would need to get her case filed and that we needed everything back to our office within SIX WEEKS.
  I did not hear from Ms. *****-****** for another four months.  The documents were due back to us SIX WEEKS after we sent them to her.  Although our contract provides for the charging of an update fee of $155-$310 at this point, I chose not to charge the update fee as a courtesy to her.
  It then took another four months to obtain the remaining filing fee and some of the other documents requested. After repeated attempts, by both myself and the owner of the firm, Dean Paolucci, to help her obtain the documents, I finally had enough to determine that Ms. *****-******’s income was much higher than what was initially disclosed, and she did not qualify for a Chapter 7 anymore. At that point, on 5/5/2023, I gave the client the option of filing a Chapter 13 or doing a debt settlement as her income is just too high to do a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This was again done via email and phone call.
  A few days later, on 5/8/23, she requested to close out her file. On 5/11/23, we mailed her a letter detailing the significant amount of work done on her file, and returned her filing fee refund check. We sent the letter to the same address listed on all the payments she had made to our firm, as she had never indicated she had a different address to us. She then said she did not receive the letter, and showed up at my office demanding her money on 5/30/23. She then provided me with her updated address so we could get the new letter out to her.
  After several more phone calls and text messages asking about the refund, she again went to our offices to demand her refund check and closeout letter, and she was personally handed both her closeout letter and her refund check, and her file is now closed with our office.
  I would like to address some of her specific complaints below –
  She states that “she doesn’t return phone calls, when she sends you emails, she doesn’t let you know by giving you a phone call to be looking out for it”.  First, every single message that was left for me that I received was returned, as evidenced by the letter which was given to her, showing a total of 8 phone calls made between attorney and client, and an additional 7 between her and my assistant. Further, I am certain that the entire purpose of email is for communication to be sent in lieu of a phone call, and it is explained at the very beginning of the process that documents will primarily be sent via email. Nonetheless, whenever Ms. *****-****** was confused about an email I had sent, the email was immediately followed up with a phone call.
  
  She states that “when she was suppose to have my documents looked and get back to me within 10-15 days it took her over a month to do so and even at that point she had no communication as to why my documents were not looked over”. This is wholly inaccurate. After sending Ms. *****-****** her documents twice and confirming she had received them, we received some of the items we requested eight months later. The next day, she was sent communication via email with a list of everything she needed, to which she responded with a phone call and we discussed the list.  Eventually, Ms. *****-****** managed to get us all of the requested documents after several attempts; at that point, she no longer qualified for a Chapter 7 due to high income.
  
  She states that “I still don’t have my refund and she still won’t even disclose to me how much I’m getting back of the money I paid.”. On 7/7/23, Ms. *****-****** was personally handed both a letter detailing the amount of work done on her file, and a refund check, which both indicated the amount she was getting back.
  Paolucci Law treats every single client with the utmost respect and professionalism. We did so for Ms. *****-******, even when she continued to come into both offices unannounced and demand to meet with both the owner and myself. On two separate occasions when she demanded to speak with me, I took the time to explain the process and what she could expect going forward. Now that her file is closed with us and she has her refund check, we wish her nothing but the best.
   Thank you,
  
  /s/******* L. *****, Attorney at Law

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