Mark A Jolissaint

Mark Jolissaint

Ms. Anonymous: You telephoned my office on May 20, 2020 requesting an emergency telephone consult because you were unrepresented and had an upcoming custody trial scheduled for June 5, 2020 in which you were both a plaintiff and defendant. Because of the emergency circumstances, I agreed to have the requested telephone conversation with you and we discussed in detail all matters pertinent to your upcoming trial. During this conversation, you asked if I intended to charge you attorney’s fees for the consult and I told you that I would charge you at my hourly rate of $250 per hour IF you retained me at which time it would be deducted from your retainer. You were charged for 8/10ths of an hour totaling $200. If you had not signed my contract and retained me, you would not have been charged anything for this telephone consult. You agreed to this arrangement and, after the telephone conversation, appeared at my office on May 27, 2020 and signed an attorney-client contract and paid the retainer of $2,500 and a credit card service charge estimated at $75. This service charge was $27.27 short of the service charge that I was actually charged. Consequently, when the refund was made, this amount was also deducted from your retainer as a cost in accord with our contract. Both prior to and at the time you signed this contract, you knew you would be charged for our earlier telephone conversation. After the contract was signed by both of us, I proceeded to represent you and spent an additional 2.5 hours in consult with you charging at my hourly rate. The fee for this consult totaled $625. In addition, as I had told you I would do, I contacted the plaintiff’s attorney and discussed the case with him in detail attempting to define the issues and to determine whether any settlement was possible. For this conversation, you were charged 3/10ths of an hour totaling $75. Thereafter, without explanation, you contacted my office and told me that you did not want me to proceed any further with my representation of you. In response, I refunded to you what remained of your retainer totaling $1,572.73. Because I was discharged before June 5, 2020, and because I had not yet filed a motion to enroll as your attorney of record, I followed your instructions and did not appear at the hearing on June 5, 2020. Following this hearing, you contacted my office and demanded a further refund of fees totaling $502.27 pertaining to our original telephone conversation and the subsequent time spent for which you were charged. All other fees that were charged pertained to client consult in conjunction with trial preparation. I refused and continue to refuse this demand. In conclusion, I believe when you chose to execute my attorney-client contract on May 27, 2020, you fully understood and agreed to all the financial conditions that pertained to my representation of you in these proceedings and you voluntarily chose to proceed. If you had not been willing to pay for the initial telephone consult, all you had to do was refuse to sign the contract and seek legal representation elsewhere which you chose not to do. Furthermore, your complaints pertaining to other time you were charged are groundless and without merit. I am referring to you as Ms. Anonymous because that is how you identify yourself. Certainly, I know who you are and I will send you a copy of this response directly. Updated 9/30/20 - to supplement my earlier comment, on 9/28/20 the chargeback fee you requested (Not as Described or Defective Merchandise Services) from Intuit/Quickbooks has been dismissed and resolved in my favor. (case #155952386). Thank you Mark Alan Jolissaint