HAMALENGWA — Findings of Professional
Misconduct — While representing a difficult client who was charged with first degree murder, the Lawyer was eligible to bill the Ministry of the Attorney General for fees and disbursements pursuant to a Fisher order — The Lawyer's accounting, billing and docketing systems were deplorable and bore no relationship to his billings to the Ministry — The Lawyer engaged in professional misconduct by billing the Ministry for attendances at court when he had not attended or attended for less time than he claimed; overbilling for legal research; billing for services that were not properly billable as legal services; overbilling for student assistance disbursements he had not incurred; overbilling for fees and disbursements that were not fair and reasonable; and submitting a document to the Ministry purporting to be an invoice from a student working under his direction when the invoice was not prepared by the student and the services were not rendered as described in the
Misconduct — While representing a difficult client who was
charged with first degree murder, the Lawyer was eligible to bill the Ministry of the Attorney General for fees and disbursements pursuant to a Fisher order — The Lawyer's accounting, billing and docketing systems were deplorable and bore no relationship to his billings to the Ministry — The Lawyer engaged in professional
misconduct by billing the Ministry for attendances at court when he had not attended or attended for less time than he claimed; overbilling for legal research; billing for services that were not properly billable as legal services; overbilling for student assistance disbursements he had not incurred; overbilling for fees and disbursements that were not fair and reasonable; and submitting a document to the Ministry purporting to be an invoice from a student working under his direction when the invoice was not prepared by the student and the services were not rendered as described in the
misconduct by billing the Ministry for attendances at court when he had not attended or attended for less time than he claimed; overbilling for legal research; billing for services that were not properly billable as legal services; overbilling for student assistance disbursements he had not incurred; overbilling for fees and disbursements that were not fair and reasonable; and submitting a document to the Ministry purporting to be an invoice from a student working under his direction when the invoice was not prepared by the student and the services were not rendered as
described in the document.
As the article
describes, Daniel Elia, a former disgruntled client of Buffalo based law firm, Damon & Morey has created a website, damon-moreymisconduct.com, to broadcast Elia's complaints about the firm's alleged
misconduct, such as
charging unreasonable fees and failing to disclose a conflict of interest when the firm represented Elia and one of his creditors in a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy case.