Omaida Delgado

Omaida Delgado

This was the second time that this client hired us. She is a landlord that first hired us to draft a letter in an effort to keep a tenant's security deposit in June of 2015. She was happy enough with our services at that time that she came to us a second time in July when the tenant hired an attorney to get his security deposit back. This second time she came to us, she feared that a small claims case would be filed against her and hired us to defend. We corresponded with the opposing attorney. We did not hear back from the attorney. Throughout July, August and September this client and I had various lengthy conversations updating her on status and explaining there was nothing to be done until a case was filed. Then in September a small claims case was filed against her. In a small claims case a pretrial is set by the clerk upon filing. Pretrial was set in December 2015. In a small claims case the defendant must show up to pretrial, an answer does not absolve their required appearance. After being hired months before and only having phone conversations with this client, this client finally flew in to Florida from Texas and we met. I explained that a response was not due. That we had to show up to hearing. She seemed to understand at that meeting. However, later on that day this client called back wanting a refund because we had not filed a response. I tried to explain again that a response was not due. She stated that she was hiring someone else and we were fired. We had already put in an notice of appearance and explained that she would have to come by and sign a consent to withdrawal. When she came by again to sign the consent to withdraw, we again explained that a response was not necessary and that we could still defend this action for her but we would not issue a refund because not only did our retainer clearly state that the money she paid was non-refundable, we had spent time working on her case. We had drafted a letter to opposing counsel, written various emails to this client, read various emails from this client, had various phone conversations with this client, and called opposing counsel in an effort to settle the matter prior to his filing. We earned the $800.00 that she paid us.