I hired Al Albano of Bacon Wilson for an equity complaint. I gave him a $5000 retainer to resolve…read morean equity complaint at $300/hour late January 2022. He responded to my 4 page summons and charged me for $3000 or for 10 hours. He read previous court documents that were not needed to respond to the summons, plus I told him all of the information needed, and standard protocol for this is to deny everything. He then filed interrogatories, without asking me or going over a strategy for the plaintiff to prove allegations. The responses from the interrogatories were absolutely no proof of any allegations. They were late, but Mr. Albano told me that it doesn't matter they were late and the court does not care if they were late. I wonder of his veracity here. The responses were rambling insecurities from the plaintiff. When he received discovery, or my mother's medical records from a local hospital, I told him, I would not pay him to read her medical records. They are full of errors and contradictory information. Every paragraph or day or a different doctor or nurse says opposing information.
I asked him to just ask the lawyer who transferred the deed to state that I did not coerce my mother to transfer the deed to her property, but Mr. Albano's first reaction was, "we don't know what he will say," and the second time I asked him to do this, Mr. Albano told me, "we don't know what his reputation is." The plaintiff, my sister, cannot prove that I coerced our mother to transfer the deed because the only people in the room, was my mother and the lawyer who transferred the deed. Other lawyers stated to me that the plaintiff does not have a shot in hell with this, but Mr. Albano did nothing to get this case resolved in a timely manner. It is my opinion, Mr. Albano, acted with the motivation to make money for him and his firm.
I asked him to file a motion to dismiss, and he immediately said, he would not do that without another $5,000 retainer. He kept charging me, for review of discovery, or my mother's medical records for a total of $4800 over the original $5,000 retainer.
I finally fired him and asked for $2500 back from my retainer and my client file. I sent him a certified letter for the $2500, and Mr. Albano emailed me that he would not be reimbursing me, and he still expected me to pay the complete bill. I spoke to Lisa Carpenter, the executive director of Bacon Wilson, who told me that she is objective and does reprimand lawyers on occasion. She had my client file sent to me, and I read it all for notes from Mr. Albano, and there is no indication in my client file, that Mr. Albano read any of the discovery.
Mr. Albano called me on November 8 because Bacon Wilson has left it completely up to him, to which I would guess he will never admit any wrongdoing for fear of liability. He stated that he does not have to do what his client says, and that he did tell me about the interrogatories, and if he cowered to everyone who threatened to report him, he would not be practicing law. When I asked him why there were no notes of his review of discovery, he stated that those notes were his. He also told me that he would not be reimbursing me any money. The Mass Bar has informed me that they do not enforce or investigate issues concerning bills from attorneys.
