Complaint Review: Henry Hill and Associates Inc. - HHAI - Toronto ONTARIO

 So, I stumbled on a rat’s nest with these people of Henry Hill and Associates Inc. (HHAI) and their lawyer Chettan Phull acting like a rabid animal. Our group specializes in custom software and website development and one of the areas we have expertise in is a business apps platform called Odoo. We get leads from various sources, such as user groups, fellow developers, referrals, purchased business leads lists, etc. Our marketing campaigns are very focused on region and products of our expertise. That is how we stumbled on these HHAI people. We offered our services to them, then did a simple initial due diligence check. We have different resources in the regions we campaign. When we saw an initial reference to a court case with these people, we checked further into the case documents. Working over long distances, it is important to know the kind of people you are dealing with. Our findings led to sending to them notice of withdrawal of our services and decided to file the report to help other developers avoid loses. On evening of Saturday August 4, lawyer Chettan Phull sent to me an email with attached complaint saying he was retained by these HHAI people in respect to my RipoffReport above. Without paying attention initially, I clicked the button to print the document. I got 87 pages of printout. No, not a typo. The document is 87 pages. Unfortunately, it is not even good enough to wipe my back side! Just for good measure, he sent it to me AGAIN on the next early morning of Sunday August 5 to tell me he had sent it the day before!

A copy of the first report had been sent to them by some enterprising guy called "Peter webexpert” within hours. Mr. webexpert offered his services "in pushing the negative listing down in Google results.” OK, so they do not like the true report. The demand letter is 6 pages of legal garbage plus attachments. It goes on and on with numerous threats and some 10 quotations from Canadian laws and court cases. It is addressed to me, to the original software development company whose work HHAI stole (let us call them the developers), to the lawyer of one of the people that works for the developers, and to that person’s father through personal service, AGAIN! So his harassment continues still. He claims I sent 3 emails to Laura Beaton that I did not. In addition, this idiot lawyer included personal and confidential letters and sent them to me, an unrelated third party! For example, there is an email from Chettan Phull dated June 27 to the developer person accusing HIM of having filed my report above and demanding that HE "withdraw the review immediately.” There is another from him to the lawyer of the developer person, and yet another which is a letter from the developer’s lawyer to Chettan Phull. Very nice indeed sir! The letter complains that I did not respond to his letter of June 30 (above) within 24 hours. Then states that my statements "have no factual basis.” I invite him to READ the court documents again. He demands removal of the entire post or at least defamatory parts, and demands that I post a formal retraction and apology by 5PM EST on August 15, 2018, otherwise "HHAI will commence a legal proceeding against all of you in joint and several liability.” and claims that myself and the other entities named are "joint and several tortfeasors.” Uhum. Sure.

He never intended or me to respond to the June 30 letter. It was sent in a deliberate way just to have something to state I "did not comply with this request” on his list of accusations of August 4. So it appears that there was an agreement dated April 20, 2018 that he refers to. It was made between the developers and HHAI and paragraph 14 of that document the parties agree to not discuss the issue further. The HHAI lawyer must have slipped in the gag clause so people would not discover the extortion and harassment. The developers would have accepted it because they likely just wanted to close the books on the project and move put it all behind. The court documents show the lawsuit filed several weeks before this, then a dismissal from the plaintiff shortly after this April date and indicates that the developers were paid for their work. Of course, I was unaware of that agreement and I was not part of it. The document is not part of the court file and there are no documents from HHAI contesting any of the issues of the lawsuit. The demand letter states that "As a result of the breach of the April 20, 2018 contract [the developers] and its directors are jointly and severally liable with [me] for the Post, under section 1 of the Negligence Act, RSO 1990.” Really? I’m responsible for something I never signed or knew existed? Then he continues on to say that I "may attempt to evade service of HHAI’s forthcoming Statement of Claim.” As a result, he says, he will attempt to have the court note me in default, which would allegedly imply that I would be "deemed to admit the truth of all allegations.” This he thinks/threatens is so he can get awarded for whatever crap he demands, including "an order for a mandatory injunction to remove the Post, and a permanent injunction to prohibit any additional post that mentions HHAI.” Not only that! No sir! He will then have me and the developer’s Directors charged with "criminal contempt of court” and put us all in jail for 30 days!!!! Who is this idiot, again?!

He wants to take someone from out of country to court, thinking the person will be unable to defend himself so HE can get an uncontested order to put OTHER people in jail! Brilliant lawyer. Is this a mission of personal revenge against the developers? Wonder why they did not state that Mr. "Peter webexpert” is an alias I created, or maybe hold him also liable and threaten him with the most severe of lashings to confess. Humn. Evil, conspiring people. As for the demands for a formal retraction and apology, here it is. You can take it and go. I submit my sincere apologies to the developers and company Directors for any trouble I may have inadvertently brought to them, but hope that their sacrifice will help others. Surely they must be happy to be rid of this client, and hope they sue this lawyer. I also apologize to the developer individual’s elderly father. I apologize in advance and feel sorry for any large tech company that may hire this person as its Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel (as he states). I also apologize in advance and feel sorry to the Canadian public, should this person become a judge some day and continue this attitude. I also apologize in advance and feel sorry for anyone that hires this lawyer.

He is deficient. He incites self-serving conflict instead of amicable resolutions, creates super complex and super expensive (self serving) responses/allegations where a simple paragraph will do, makes references to laws that do not apply in order to justify his illogical or untrue statements, he threatens, harasses, and bullies people without justification, makes use of extortion tactics, releases private and confidential legal communications to the public, creates potential liabilities for his clients, and tries to prevent people from knowing how he operates. If you are considering doing business with HHAI, you may wish to give careful consideration to how they operate. Also be aware that given their documented multiple downsizing rounds and mounting legal attacks and fees, they may not be a going concern – another reason I withdrew our services. One has to wonder if anyone has ever been threatened with jail time before for posting a true report on this site. Mr. Phull, you and your clients can continue with your threats, or you can use this experience to enlighten your ways to avoid these issues. But feel free sir, to send more send more privileged and confidential documents to me anytime, but please make them more interesting! Something like a really important trade secret from one of the high tech companies you say you represent so I can use it to make a handsome profit on the stock market. I will send you your cut! Finally, adjectives and statements such as idiot, thieves, etc are opinions that would be reached by a layperson upon examination of documents and events of this issue.

 I received what would at first look like a casual and friendly email sent in the evening of July 30 from lawyer Chetan Phull of Toronto in Canada. He was the lawyer acting for Canadian recruiting company Henry Hill and Associates Inc. (HHAI), and its owners Henry Hill and Lawra Beaton. In his letter, he is asking me to remove the post above of July 26, or at least remove the reference to his name "in the next 24 hours”. He states concern that the post reflects poorly on how he personally practices law and having his name associated with the Ripoff Report could affect his chances of "becoming the Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel for a large tech company one day, or becoming a judge.” The entire letter speaks about concern for himself, only, not for his clients. This letter turned out to be just a snake-in-the-grass ruse. The 24 hour period is ignorant of timezones and workloads. Why so, will be shown on the next report, but let’s see how he "practices law.” -

The consultants at the software development company had converted HHAI’s CRM data of job applicants, notes, and companies from an obsolete system into a new modern, open source platform and went into production use of the new system. When HHAI discovered that they had the source code for the new software, they stopped responding to the developer company and blocked them on social networks, but continued using the software for many months, then started contacting other software development companies to get quotes for further development of the software. Finally, the development company sent them an invoice for their work on the project, plus other outstanding IT work, and politely asked for payment. - Instead of replying in a professional manner to the developers, Henry Hill hired this lawyer called Chetan Phull, who acted like a barking rabid dog. Without any other communication, Chettan Phull wrote to the developers a nasty letter stating that "HHAI refuses to pay the allegedly outstanding $20,427.63” plus some threats. The developers filed a lawsuit against HHAI and presented various exhibits to prove their case, including this letter from this lawyer. -

Also in the letter, he made a number of excuses for not wanting to pay. For example, "Your allegedly outstanding invoices 0162, 0163, and 0164 are unparticularized, and unsubstantiated.” and "Certain entries are time-barred …” with reference quotes from different Canadian laws, as if this makes his claims correct or even ethical. The court documents show that his statements are false. - He also makes the false statement that "There had never been a contract between you and HHAI …” Again, court documents show clearly that there was indeed an agreement for the software development, and the IT services had been provided for several years on a regular ongoing basis. In good faith they even billed the same amount as in the agreement, even though HHAI misrepresented the state of their data and caused many more hours of work to reconstruct it because of data corruption and broken referential integrity. - He then goes on and on blabbing for example that the developers’ invoicing and billing practices supposedly demonstrate a breach of the Consumer Protection Act, and that the developers supposedly engaged in unfair practices, and on and on with reference quotations again from the Canadian laws. The problem with all those allegations, though are that they are all unsubstantiated ramblings of people who have established their character as dishonest liars who took someone’s work and ran. Now caught, they will say anything to justify their actions and not pay. One of the developer company’s representatives had even looked after these people’s house while they were away on vacation! There is nothing demonstrating wrongdoing, destruction of data, non-functional software, etc. -

Finally, Chetan Phull states that "HHAI has sustained actionable losses in excess of $265,384.74. The commencement of legal proceedings for such loses will result in legal fees that you will be held responsible for. We are considering HHAI’s position against you and [the company] in an action for damages. Our client, however, is open to settling this matter on a full and final, all-inclusive basis.” They have already firmly stated that they WILL NOT PAY. What he is saying now is that if the developer company does not forget all the money owed for their hard work, these people will attempt to extort a huge sum of money for made up "actionable losses” that are never detailed and have never been brought to the company’s attention. This, even with the peculiar amount stated exact to the last cent! In law, in many countries, it is illegal to say "I will do x to you do (or do not do) y for me.” The allowable exception is to threaten the use of the law as it relates directly to the failing (the cause) of the first party. For example, "I will take you to court if you do not pay me by the end of next week.” Here, this lawyer is threatening that he will sue for some unrelated made-up large sum that is completely unknown to the other people, unless they just go away. That is extortion. Extortion is illegal.

Finally, court documents show that HHAI did pay the developers for their work. This is further proof that the "actionable losses” were false. - The letter was addressed directly at one of the representatives of the company and also at the representative’s elderly father who "had absolutely nothing to do with this matter.” The letter threatens the company and these two people personally. This is so wrong! Imagine, dear reader, if you were in this situation. The company you work for establishes an agreement to do some work for a client business and you are assigned to the project. You do the work and provide your work product to the client. The client then stops responding after that. You company sends a bill. Next thing you know, your elderly father and yourself receive a letter from some lawyer threatening he will take you both to court to attempt to rob you of some large amount of money if your company keeps asking to get paid for the work you have done for them. Your father knows nothing of what this is about. How would your father feel? How would you feel? This is harassment.

It is hoped that this short summary demonstrates the accuracy of my report / review of HHAI. It was made as a public service to warn other developers and even job seekers of the business practices of these people. This lawyer’s actions were unjustified and unethical. As for Mr. Chetan Phull (and his clients), I offer some free advice. If you do not want people to know you are a bully, then do not bully people. If you do not want people to know you are a liar, then do not lie. If you do not want people to know you use extortion, then do not do it. If you do not want people to know you are a thief, then do not steal! If you do not want people to know that you are violating copyright, then don’t take a contracted developer’s work and use it without paying for it and certainly do not provide it to someone else without permission. Also, you want me to remove my posted report. I invite you to read the terms of this website, sir.