Unreturned calls & e-mails after the retainer was paid. Refused to refund retainer. Now filing fee arbitration with the Florida
We had a horrible experience with this attorney. Unreturned calls and e-mails, month + delay in getting started. The worst thing is when we advised him that we no longer want to retain his services, his office has refused to refund us our retainer (even tough no services were rendered). We've file...d a BBB complaint (the attorney simply ignored it). We are in the process of filing a Fee Arbitration with the Florida Bar, but most importantly we are doing as many reviews online as we can so this horrible experience doesn't happen to anyone else.
Here is a copy of the BBB complaint that we filed:
On January 18, 2011 I signed a contract with Mr Colvin to provide legal services for a family law case. The two prior times I had spoken to him before I had hired him I received great customer service and quick responses to my questions. Once I hired Mr Colvin on the 18th my communication slowed and became non-existant. I came into the office and made payment on the 20th of January. At this time I was told Mr Colvin would be contacting opposing counsel Mr Rigby and I would be updated. I called on the 25th and the 27th to follow up and I was told both time by his paralegal that she had messages out to him. I followed up again on January 31st and his paralegal told me she had a message out to him. At this point I had not received a call back or an update from Mr Colvin or anyone in his office. On February 3rd and sent an e-mail to follow up and again I was told a message was left for him. I expressed concern that Mr Colvin would be too busy to take my case. His paralegal assured me that was not the case and I was told that a message would be left on his chair and someone would get back to me on the no later than Friday the 4th of February. On February 4th I called in the morning and didn't even get the paralegal I got their assistant. I was told that Mr Colvin was with a client and Dolly his paralegal was on the phone. I called back a few hours later on the 4th when I did not hear back from his office and was told that Mr Colvin was not in the office and Dolly his paralegal was on the phone. I left the assistant a message again. I called back around 3pm on the 4th again and expressed my concern to the assistant that I was promised that I would hear from somebody before the weekend regarding the status of my case. She assured me that Dolly the paralegal would call me back, I asked what time the office closed and she said 5pm and that Dolly would call me back before the end of the day. I did not hear from anyone at the office and I sent an e-mail over the weekend (the 5th/6th of February). I expressed how upset I was about not receiving a call back about the status of my case. At this point I was not sure if opposing council had been contacted and didn't know what the status of my case was. I asked at this time to receive a refund as it had been 3 weeks since I paid and had not received a status of what was going on with my case, let alone Mr Colvin never contacted me or his paralegal Dolly. After I sent my e-mail I received a call on Tuesday the 8th about opposing council being contacted and left a message. I expressed my concern and asked why it took 3 weeks to get me this information when I called so many times before and was not given an answer. I again didn't hear anything for 2 more days and on the 10th of February was told again that a message was left for opposing council again. I asked to speak with Mr Colvin and he has been yet to give me a call. At that point I requested a refund as I had been yet to receive any services and my request was ignored. I have requested a couple of times to get a refund and have not heard anything, let alone hear anything from Mr Colvin.
Desired Resolution:
I am seeking to receive a refund in the amount of $2000, which is the retainer amount that I paid.