Jody Elizabeth O'Brien

I hired Ms. O'Brien for a very simple task. It wound up involving only a few phone calls and emails to another attorney, probably totalling under 2 hours. I provided all the documentation to be conveyed to Hughes & Coleman, the plaintiff's lawyers. They had refused to answer calls from my business ma...nager, likely because she wasn't a lawyer. Besides charging me 20 minutes to read or send each email, she added in $250 for an hour of "research." I know this is standard practice for the legal profession, but that doesn't make it right. When questioned, she claimed clients want their lawyers to be knowledgeable. Well, of course they do, but shouldn't that knowledge be acquired in school and through experience? It's not right to make the client pay for their OJT (On the Job Training). As a piano teacher, if I don't know something, I don't stop the lesson and go look it up while the child sits there. I'm expected to have the skills to perform my job. At the very least, she could have had her $90/hour paralegal do the research. I'm not happy with the $800 bill and won't use her again.