BEWARE - We had a 30 minute consultation with Keri Firth for $50.00. A couple days later, I called with the intentions of retaining limited services to review court docs that I had completed. Keri said we can hire her for limited scope, I don't recall the fee for that, but then she said for full representation it would be $3,500 and then after 45 days we'd be charged $500 per month.
ME: Oh, that's for you guys to do everything?
KERI: Yes, it will only cost more if the case gets drawn out.
So I agreed to the full representation. Maybe I was naive, I thought that included EVERYTHING for 45 days.
Only 1 week after hiring them they requested $425 for filing fees. Then a couple days later they requested $500 for court investigator fees. I paid both. Two weeks after hiring them we appear at the first hearing. Keri did a horrible job representing our case. I'm waiting for the court transcripts before I comment further on that. The next morning I emailed Keri to inform her to STOP all work on our case and send me my final bill and since it had only been 2 weeks I fully expected to have a portion of our $3,500 retainer returned. Instead I received a bill of over $6,000. So balance due of over $1,600.
I'd like to add that after just one week, we were already over $3,500 but never did they inform us. It wasn't till I fired them and got my final bill did I find out. Who knows how much would have been racked up over the next couple of weeks before they send out their monthly bill.
So my questions that I emailed and havent received a response:
1. Does Keri deny stating it would only cost more than $3,500.00 if the case got drawn out?
2. Was it just lack of experience on Keri's part to not request a larger retainer fee?
3. Or were we intentionally mislead about the cost?
We were only 2 weeks in and the cost is over $6,000.00. We were NEVER given any indication that we were anywhere close to using up the $3,500.00.
I have emailed David Martin about waiving the $1,600 balance. He agreed to waive half. That is not acceptable to me. I do not want to pay them another dime. They already took me for nearly $4,500 for.
Besides posting my story everywhere possible, my next step is complaint to the State Bar.
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