John C. Orcutt and Jeremey Harn Fayetteville Office Jeremy S. Harn They Took Money without rendering services Fayetteville North Carolina
In January of 2017 my wife and I contacted The Law Offices of John C. Orcutt in Fayetteville NC to see if we qualified for either Chapter 7 , 11, or 13.
we were given an appointment to see Mary. After we finished filling out pages and pages of informationwe were seen seperatly at first; my wife went in first, then I was called in to join them...aftre some discussion; against my better judgement we filed Bankruptcy jointly...we were told the process would be done by July the latest if we paid the $1500 within the month. We paid the fee and even gave them some sort of bankruptcy certificate class that was done on-line that was an additional $50.00. Time went by and they kept asking for more bills and more paperwork... Then in April, when I decided to file us seperately, they informed us that couldn't be done because there is a conflict of interest.. When I asked what that meant she and Mr. Jeremy Harn said he couldn't say... My wife and I then scheduled a meet with Mr. Harn and he repeated the same information to us both, still not explaining whaTy this conflict was...so I in turn said " If you don't want to proceed with the filing then return our money." He said he couldn't do that because they've done all the work and had to charge us for what they did...Unknowing to Mr. Harn I recorded every part of that meeting from begining to end and am now ready to present it to The State Bar Association of North Carolina unless Every Single Dime of Our Money is reimbursed IMMEDIATELY... Being from New York and having Lawyers in our family we were taught to protect ourselves in this matter.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Jim
Anaheim,California,
United States
Won't Get A Refund
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, November 22, 2017
The only thing the bar will do is determine if the lawyer really went through and did $1500 worth of work. Since lawyers bill at anywhere between $200 and $350 per hour (or more), it would not be that hard for them to go through $1500. Once the lawyer presents his work indicating $1500 was done, you're completely out of luck, even with a recording. Your family members that are lawyers should be able to confirm this.
The other important thing is why the attorney could not disclose answers to your questions. By deciding to now go file bankruptcy separately, your attorney was faced with an ethical problem he/she handled quite well. The attorney could not disclose an answer to your questions because the lawyer had no idea who the client is. If it was you, the lawyer could not answer the questions with your wife present. If the client was your wife, the lawyer could not answer the questions since the lawyer isn't your attorney. Either way, anything the lawyer disclosed as an answer would have violated attorney/client priviledge. If you filed jointly, there would be no violation and the lawyer would have answered your questions. The Bar is going to listen to that recorded conversation, and tell you what I just told you...and then tell you that you have no case. Sounds like you have a fairly ethical attorney.
Now, the bigger issue here is that you definitely have a conflict by deciding to file separately, instead of a joint bankruptcy. Each of you have specific debts (or interests) at play, and lawyers from the same firm cannot represent both of you when there are separate interests. For example, you wife may have debts that are discharged against her, but not against you. In that situation, one lawyer cannot represent each of your interests because your interests are quite different. You each need a lawyer to represent your own interests.
You don't provide a reason, but by jointly filing bankruptcy, your interests and your wife's interests are one and the same. To file separately means one of you has assets or debts the other is not a part of. If that's the case, then yeah - you did the right thing even though it's going to cost you more to do so. One of you has interests that need to be protected - certainly more than the other. Best of luck to you....