Nancy M. Eraca

My case involved theft of funds and materials by my contractor. Took a good 2 weeks to get an appt since she only consults with her assistant and the assistant is only available twice a week I believe. Go figure why ! I have extensive experience in litigation matters being a Project and Business Cons...ultant and a Licensed Real Estate Broker with my own company. I send them a concise one page summary of the case prior to the meeting. So we start the meeting and neither of them has even bothered to read the one page summary. I point them to that summary and they still seem lost. So I hand hold them through the summary. The assistant points out that the contract is unenforceable since it does not comply with sec 36A of the NY state business law. So I ask him to be more specific. He says the contract does not have a start and finish date, It's a simple one and half page document and I not only point out the dates but I also point out the delay damages clause to him. The he says that the contract should have an escrow requirement. Again I point out to him that there were no advance payments so the escrow requirement is moot and even if there was one it should be the contractors responsibility. Then he says that there are various other provisions and he doesn't remember them but he is pretty sure that this contract will not be enforceable. Obviously he could have referred to the law which would have only taken a few minutes. But given that he wouldn't/ couldnt even understand a simple one and a half page contract that would be a gargantuan task for him. We are now about 15 minutes into the meeting. I tell him that I find it hard to believe that most contracts would comply with all these provisions and not be enforceable for technicalities when it substantially complies. I tell them that i will do my own checking and get back to them. Its a simple civil matter with about 20000 of damages. She refuses to spend any of her time without a ridiculous 10000 retainer. I consult 2 other attorneys one of them being an AV rated attorney and they validate my opinion. They said that these laws are meant for consumer protection and the fact that I substantially complied and that I was the owner and not the contractor that it would be enforeceable. They also could not find any case law to support the contrary. In summary to say that these attorneys were careless, flippant and incompetent would be giving them a compliment. They were a JOKE !!