Francine Z. Taylor

On 1/24/07, I paid Francine Taylor $1625.00 to help me get my $80,000.00 that my ex still owed me on a 2001 "Promissory Note." In the "General Fee Agreement and POA," form letter which Mrs. Taylor and I both signed, it stated she was appointed as my lawful attorney to represent me on account of all... claims arising. Francine's first step had been to prepare a letter to my ex on February 13, 2007. Her next step on March 21 & 22 , she had 3 phone calls with the opposing attorney and 5 more calls between April 11 and April 30, none of which were ever disclosed to me, and I never received any copies of correspondence from the opposing attorney. I was charged for another "prepared letter" to my ex on 5/16/07, and also charged for two more calls I placed asking what progress was being made. As of 7/03/07 my account balance was now only $67.50 and I could not see any progress whatsoever in my case. I was concerned that over $1600.00 had been used up already on a client calls, numerous file reviews, and two letter preparations. I didn't at all understand the invoice billing... how can client calls, attorney calls, and file review hourly rates be so inconsistent in price? I had one meeting after my initial consultation that was exactly one hour long, yet on the invoice I was billed for one hour and twenty minutes at two different hourly rates. On 7/12/07 I sent Mrs. Taylor a certified letter requesting a list of any correspondence with opposing counsel and my ex, and ask her not do anything more regarding my case until I had time to read over any copies of letters from opposing counsel and so I could see what had been done thus far to date on her part. What I had received in the mail was only the invoices listing dates, times, and hourly costs of reviews, calls, a meeting, and letter preparations. Being extremely dissatisfied with the services, I then consulted with another attorney. He had informed me that since there wasn't a "date due by" written on the Promissory Note, there was nothing that could be done to collect the money owed me. That was very disappointing to hear. On 7/31/07, I sent another certified letter to Mrs. Taylor, stating clearly that I had wanted something in writing that I could fully understand what was done thus far to try and collect the money owed me. On 8/8/07 I called her office and was told Francine was not available to talk, so I informed her assistant Kathy, I was not satisfied with Francine's services and had terminated her services and I arranged to pick up my files on 8/22/07. Oddly, on 8/23/07 the certified letter I had mailed to her office on 7/31/07 had been returned by mail to me unopened. I believe she was playing some sort of game. I had a credit balance of $67.50 when I picked up my files on 8/23/07, and Francine still has not sent me my refund to date (7/21/13). I am still trying to collect my money from this loan and had a recently consulted with another attorney and was informed that filing a "Mechanics Lien," as Francine said she was going to do at first, was not the correct thing to do in my case. I really don't believe Francine knew the law very well in 2007 and it costed me $1500.00, but hopefully she has learned some new things by this time.