Kurt A. Smith

Kurt Smith

The client who posted this review neglected to leave their name, so it is very difficult to comment with any accuracy on the allegations in the client's review. That said, an unexcused failure to show up at a hearing is a very serious thing for a client, an attorney, and the Court. Those types of failures do not escape the Court's notice and the Court issues sanctions against attorneys for those types of failures. As I have never been sanctioned for missing a Hearing, it is difficult to believe that the statements being made here are accurate. What is true is that as attorneys, one of the things that we have very little control over is the scheduling of Hearings. The Courts set the dates and times of Hearings. Often times, due to attorneys having multiple clients, attorneys have multiple hearings scheduled at multiple times on the same day - sometimes at the same time. It is the attorney's job to effectively juggle those types of scenarios so that the client is impacted as little as possible. Attorneys do that through their relationships with the Courts as well as their relationships with opposing counsels. However, sometimes, despite our best efforts, Hearings run long in one courtroom making it impossible to make it to the next courtroom in a timely manner. Although judges are typically cognizant of those situations, there are those times when the judge's schedules will not permit a particular hearing to be "trailed" until the attorney is free from his other obligation. In those situations, however, the Courts will give the attorney the opportunity to reschedule the Hearing for another date. That is what appears to have happened in the above-listed scenario. As the client states, "court went fine" and the Hearing date was rescheduled. In those scenarios, however, as stated by the client, my office is ALWAYS happy to waive any fees associated with the missed Hearing date. Such is acknowledged by the client above. The misleading part of the client's review is the part that he/she received a bill for the fees that were waived for the missed Hearing. Again, because the client failed to post his/her name, it is impossible to go back and check and make things right if that were the case (which is highly unlikely.) What is much more likely is that my office finished the case in question and the client in question had an outstanding bill that they simply stopped paying on - a bill that included work that was done over and above the missed hearing, which appears to have been credited to the client's bill. In such a case, my office makes every attempt to collect on the monies that are owed without the need to employ the services of collection companies, although sometimes those steps are necessary. However, to the above-listed unnamed client, I make the same promise that I make to all of my clients. If there is something on your bill that doesn't look right, you have but to call my office and I will be happy to review it with you and remove it from your bill as appropriate. If there are outstanding balances owed, I am happy to work with you on that as well. I look forward to hearing from you one-on-one so that we can get this situation cleared up and rectified to your satisfaction.