Harris-Courage and Grady, PLLC

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First, we want to apologize for the frustration experienced by this person. We have returned the appointment fee of $350 to this person. I have also informed my staff that I (Laura Harris Courage) should be notified when anyone requests a refund so we can review the situation on a case by case basis. We offer a free phone consultation to verify before we "waste anyone's time, including our own time" that a bankruptcy is the correct solution for a person or couple. In this particular case, we realized after the attorney reviewed the information from the appointment, that this person could not qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In hindsight, we now know we must ask additional questions for this type of debtor at the initial phone consultation so we don't have this problem in the future. Other attorneys may have pushed this individual into a Chapter 13 where the attorney fees would have been substantially higher but our goal is not to maximize our fees but to do what it right for the client. Our office works similar to a doctor's office where a paralegal (like a nurse) will gather information and paperwork but everything is then reviewed by an attorney. In this case, after the paralegal returned the paperwork and the attorney checked the facts and the law, we realized the problem. There is a lot of time, expense and review put into any case which happens before and after a face to face appointment with a client. We would lose money and be out of business if our goal was to just do initial consultations with no intention of proceeding with petitions. Our office has filed nearly 7,000 successful bankruptcy cases over 18 years. Cases like this are rare and our goal is to learn from situations like this so we can serve our clients better in the future. We wish the best for this individual.