Complaint Review: Hess Kennedy Company

STOP PAYMENT!!!Call the FTC ,file a complaint -Call Attorney General of Fla. and most important,call The Florida Bar ,there our friends who got the temp disbarment order issued (was told this when I contacted them to file a complaint),let me see,The Attorney Network ,Premier Debt Center, HessKennedy ,The Consumer Law Center, CCC of A, enough names for one crooked bunch of SOBs, these "lawyers" make you appreciate the good old days of ambulance chasers and personal injury sharks.

Thanks rip-off report for providing a forum for us to help each other out . Irony;when a capitol one collection agent tells you to "check out what the rip-off report says about them", by the way ,he dropped my balance by 50% and is accepting payments, you can do this yourself.......CAUTION............ Did get a call from collection attorney he had been calling their # and mailing notices to their address so change your contact information ,if you get a summons and you dont appear the judgement will be for the plaintif - WE NEED A CLASS ACTION SUIT!!!!-In additional penalties and interest I am out at least $6500.00 more -by the way I didnt get into this situation thru financial mismanagement- it was an auto accident and no income for 4 1/2 months afterwards . GOOD LUCK !

I am updating this report out of fairness and equity. I would have done it many months ago, but simply forgot about it as this report was done a year ago. Hess Kennedy did in fact issue me a COMPLETE REFUND back in September of 2007, along with a letter stating they regretted they were not able to service me as a client. Although these reports may work in many instances, I felt it my duty to update this report to inform others that my complaints were answered, and my money returned.

I'm another victim of Hess Kennedy and was referred to them by CCC of America. Tara, the counselor from CCC of America, who did my phone consult, advised that due to the amount of my debt, debt settlement was the advisable route to take to resolve my debt without filing bankruptcy. She explained about the monthly payments being made and place in a settlement account until enough funds had accrued to start settling my debts.

NEVER did Tara or anyone from Hess Kennedy ever inform me that Hess Kennedy did not do debt settlement, which is what I was told I was signing up for. I was never told anything about this incorrect billing statement scam. If I had known disputing billing statements was how they proposed to get people out of debt, I would never have signed anything. Also, this type of debt remedy that they claim to provide was not mentioned anywhere in their contract. I too was told that my first payment would be considered the retainer fee for their services, and my contract also states this.

They make so many false claims and tell so many people so many different things and think they can get away with it because they are supposed to be a law firm. After someone I am in contact with did some digging around, it appears as though Laura Hess is the only real lawyer involved with this company, as she was the only one registered with the Florida Bar and in good standing.

Something needs to be done NOW!!!

After sending correspondence with multiple State and Federal agencies, I finally received a response from Hess Kennedy through the MN Attorney General's office. This response was received after being requested three times by my Attorney General. This is the response I received:

Dear Mr. Gosiger (Consumer Advocate for MN Atty. General's office)

I am in receipt of your letter and consumer complaint dated February 6, 2007. Hess Kennedy is a chartered law firm owned and operated by citizens of the United States, United Kingdom, and the Cayman Islands. (My comment: WHO CARES?).

Our core concentration is traditional asset protection and wealth management. However, we soon realized that the middle class lacked access to such disciplines because the costs involved with retaining competent counsel. Hence, an opportunity arose. (My comment: I received NOTHING OF VALUE, no debts were settled, and crap service for thousands of dollars).

During the process of protecting the middle classes' primary asset, their home, we realized that 99% of their periodic statements contained billing errors. This being the case, our attorneys quickly devised a strategy to audit creditor compliance with the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. (My comment: 99% of anyone's bills they receive contain errors?? Right. Strategy devised: Take people's hard earned money, and put the boots to them when they are already down, and were counting on Hess Kennedy to help them through financial difficulties).

Mr. X (me) retained our firm in order to enforce his federal rights. He entered into a written retainer agreement identifying the services to be performed, the cost of the services, and the consequences of not following the instructions of his attorney or bouncing a check made payable to the law firm. (My comment: Wait, it gets better...)

On October 12, 2006, October 18, 2006, October 24, 2006, November 13, 2006, and November 20, 2006 Mr. X (me) bounced checks made payable to the law firm in an amount totaling $2406.00. Besides the fact he makes no mention to your agency of bouncing 5 checks with our firm and made no mention prior to his consumer complaint with any dissatisfaction of services, it cannot have been nor could be his reasonable expectation that services would be performed on his behalf and at his discretion, yet he not be required to pay for those services. (My comment: My payments were via electronic debit from my checking account on the 15th of every month. Never did I write Hess Kennedy a paper NSF check, but their response was intended to discredit me for doing so. I called Hess Kennedy 3 days prior to my October 15, 2006 payment date to notify them I had not been paid, and their response was that they required 10 days notice to stop the transaction from going through. I am self employed, and am not paid on specific dates monthly. My "bounced checks" were nothing more than them attempting multiple times to collect that specific payment. Also, I sent Hess Kennedy a certified letter received by them on January 3, 2006 fully stating my dissatisfaction with their services along with my cancellation request. By the way, they quickly sent me an invoice "for services rendered" totaling $4486.55, while still retaining around $5000.00 of my money that was supposed to be used to settle my debts and pay for processing fees. NONE of my debts were settled, and Hess Kennedy decided they could keep all of my money for themselves).

In our experience, rather than contact your attorney and explain that you cannot afford to make payments for services, (I did, and what about paying my d**n bills??) consumers merely bounce their payments and complain of a lack of services in order to try to obtain a refund. Because we believe that this consumer is experiencing financial difficulties, we will not engage in any collection activity in an attemp to collect the outstanding legal fees. (My comment: Can you believe this response?? They never correspond with you, no account number or statement regarding your money, never return phone calls, put you on hold forever, won't disclose activities or settlement offers from creditors per request, respond to the MN Attorney General after THREE requests. I never knew what was happening with my situation, due to the fact that Hess Kennedy never called me, wrote to me or disclosed any information regarding my situation. And, if I were lucky enough to get through while paying long distance toll charges, I might get to speak to a paralegal that doesn't know me or my situation from jack, and was fed a bunch of pre-authored generic jargon that was non-specific to me. I asked several times that information and faxes sent to creditors be forwarded to me via fax, and they never complied with my requests. In conclusion, I am a non-communicating, irresponsible check bouncing consumer that hired competent counsel for my middle class problem, all with minimal costs involved to hire such a professionally run and honest law firm. Hess Kennedy should be proud of the plan they quickly devised to help people like you and me. Proud that they are ruining people's very livlihood and existence, while enjoying caviar and truffles on their company yacht at our expense).

Very truly yours,

Advocate For The Firm
Hess Kennedy Company

I am here to tell everyone that has been ripped off from Hess Kennedy & Company to get together and lets file a Class Action Lawsuit!! We should not let them get away with this! They steal money straight out of our personal checking accounts and deceive us!! Please contact me to file a lawsuit! We have to stand together and fight so they can't do this to any more people!!!

I am here to tell everyone that has been ripped off from Hess Kennedy & Company to get together and lets file a Class Action Lawsuit!! We should not let them get away with this! They steal money straight out of our personal checking accounts and deceive us!! Please contact me to file a lawsuit! We have to stand together and fight so they can't do this to any more people!!!