Complaint Review: Legal Helpers - Macey & Aleman Law Firm - Indianapolis Indiana

I have dealt with them too in Indy. Same things happened to me. Unfortunately I stuck with them. I know am about to have a nervous breakdown dealing with the people at the 800 number and my attorney's will never talk to us. We are seeing a new attorney tomorrow and are probably going to have to pay thousands more to straighten this all out.

I wish to ask, when it takes 3 tries to complete a petition and it is still incorrect, should you be charged all three attempts? Should a client have to pay for three attmepts...? How about when your name is incorrect on the third petition? Or... When you are told the reason why there is several months delay in processing your petition, it is "because you are borderline chapter 13." should a client be charged? ...When it actuality if someone LOOKED at your case and MADE the corrections... it is because 131k in real estate was listed incorrectly on schedule F and not on the correct schedule D? Should a person be charged for this? I am told that I will be. and ... I have one creditor that I have been working with. Funny thing is, your company always told her that I had no moving case.. Interesting to hear from the collectors side. Since then I terminated and requested a FULL refund, see you soon if I do receive a full refund by tomorrow.

I am one of the partners at Macey & Aleman. I notice that there have been a total of 3 complaints filed about the firm since 2005. My firm has averaged over 5,000 bankruptcy cases filed for clients across the country. This fact alone shows that the experiences complained of by the 3 former clients is not indicative of the experience of the vast majority of clients. Given the volume of clients we represent, the reality is, despite all efforts, that there may be some people who become dissatisfied and decide to terminate the business relationship. In our society, disputes over lawyer time is commonplace, unfortunately. My firm charges flat fees that are earned upon receipt. This means that we do not bill by the hour. It also means that fees are earned once collected and no refund is due. However, the firm is dedicated to providing quality service at a fair fee. In the situation where a client decides not to proceed with a bankruptcy case, whether because their situation has improved or because they have become dissatisfied, the firm provides an itemization of non-lawyer and lawyer time and gives refunds when the money collected exceeds the time spent on the file based on a reasonable hourly rate. In situations where the time calculation exceeds the money paid by the client the firm does not seek to be compensated for the additional time. There are also many instances where the firm will refund money in excess of what is due. With regard to this complaint, specifically, I would like to point out that it does, in fact, take at least 12 minutes to receive a short fax, log it into the database, read the fax, and determine the proper course of action, then file the fax away into the paper file. It takes in excess of 48 minutes to give post-consultation advice based on the decision the client has made to proceed with bankruptcy, to set up the paper file, to make detailed entries into the client database, to appropriately account for any money exchanging hands, and to diary the file for necessary follow-up. It is common practice in the legal industry to bill time in 1/10th of an hour increments and round the time to the nearest 1/10th of an hour. I would also like to point out that my firm takes in excess of 2,500 phone calls a day. The firm has staff available to take calls from 7:30am-9:00pm central time. Anyone who answers the phone can provide whatever advice, support, or information is needed for the vast majority of situations. So the allegations in this complaint about the trouble getting through on the phone is very surprising and does not represent the experience that the majority of our clients enjoy at Macey & Aleman. Finally, I wish to offer an apology to the former clients who posted here. I am sorry that my firm did not meet your expectations for client service. I also apologize you felt the accounting of time was not fair. If you wish to discuss the issue further, you can go to our website at www.legalhelpers.com and submit a request in the comments section and I will contact you.

With most law firms, a call to the firm with a "complaint" and request to speak to a partner will resolve the issue. Alternatively, you can contact the state bar and file a complaint. This firm has a website with a "concerns" email as well.