Complaint Review: Amaral & Associates P.C. - Winthrop MA

This law firm practices unethical billing practices, unethical professional practices. I hired Amaral & Associates for a simple divorce: no kids, no large assets.

A) Unethical Billing Practices:  They represented me for 4 months & charged me close to $30K. Billing included charges for scanning docs  ( exorbitant)In addition the law firm misplaced the documents I had sent again & again & then emailed me about it, charging me for email correspondence. Then after going through several emails their paralegal would suddenly find it. Did I say I sent a registered USPS Mail & the slip showed it was delivered, except they sent me five emails claiming they didn’t receive it? 

B) Lack of Financial & Accounting Knowledge:  One of the most important aspect of a divorce is not a lawyer who knows how to game the system ( submitting motions, counter-motions etc). In a probate court, slick lawyers don’t matter. Everything boils down to negotiating divorce settlement for which the lawyer should have at least a basic knowledge of Math, Finance & Accounting.  The law firm is terrible at it. For example, if you are going to push your client to take the retirement account instead of the house, the lawyer should at the least know the difference between 401(K) & 403(But his law firm knows nothing of this difference & when you try to educate them you are scoffed off. Because you know they have a legal degree.

C) Misrepresenting Final Cost: When I was billed over $10k in a month, I emailed them stating very clearly, that I was not going to afford this type of payments. I also stated that since the assets were not large spending this type of money made no sense to me. They asked me to call them up & made a verbal contract with me stating that the case was almost done & at the most there were 20 hours left. When I asked them to give me an amount, they stated falsely, that it would be around $7,000 more. The total bill should have been $17kDid I tell you after charging me initially with $10,000, they charged another $20k. All in all, I spent close to $30,000? 

D) Reporting me to credit bureau with vindictive & malicious intent.  After my divorce settlement, I had three months to remortgage. I was sent an additional $9,000 bill. By this time I had paid $20, 000 to this law firm. I sent them a registered mail ( as I had been advised) disputing their amount. I stated, that I was told the entire case would be complete within $7,000 & I needed time to look at the bill carefully & get back to them.  They acted as though they never receive this correspondence & started to harass me to pay the money. They threatened to report me to credit rating agency. American Bar Association ( ABA)  has published their opinion on lawyers reporting clients to Credit Agencies as punitive. I would add in this case that it was vindicative & malicious. The law firm Amaral & associates reported me to the credit bureaus a month before the divorce court settlement deadline ( end of the month). I have evidence of the exact date because I use credit karma to check my scores regularly. Thankfully by then, my mortgage had come through. I believe they violated their professional st&ards by reporting me to credit bureau knowing very well that if they did, my credit score would be affected & in turn would affect my mortgage.  If I was not able to take out a mortgage I would have to sell. Then they could collect. My credit score has been affected so badly I cannot get to refinance my student loans or get credit cards with good interest rates. I know there is a God because the mortgage had come through by then.  

E) Sending Collection Agency Lawyers Against Me: After that incident, they got their credit collection agency pals ( view their Avvo profiles under Edward Amaral & Talia Simmond)  all the reviews have been left by credit collector lawyers who also work in probate courts) & started harassing me with threatening letters & lawsuits.   At this point, I borrowed money & settled the case. I then requested their credit collection lawyer pals to remove the derogatory remark on my credit report. They have not taken any action.    

Hire this law firm at your own risk!