Pro Se Ex-Client Wins 'Awesome' $5K Fee Award Against Lawyer
A judge has nixed a New York lawyer’s argument that he shouldn’t have to reimburse an ex-client $5,500 for unearned legal fees, due to a personal bankruptcy and a business name change, reports the Staten Island Advance.
Michael DeFilippo must ante up and return the $5,000 retainer Sue Ruberto paid him to handle some work concerning her mother’s estate in New York, because he didn’t do the work, ruled Judge Philip Straniere, enforcing a small claims court judgment that Ruberto also won pro se.
The Staten Island lawyer “obtained these legal fees, by ‘false pretenses’ or by ‘a false representation,’” wrote Straniere, who is the supervising judge of West Brighton Civil Court, in his opinion. “To permit the defendant to escape from legal-fee refund obligations by the use of a discharge in bankruptcy would undermine public confidence in the legal system and make a mockery of lawyer-client relationship.”
Reached by the newspaper by telephone at her home in Mendham, N.J., Ruberto called her latest legal victory “awesome,” and said she had feared DiFilippo would prevail because he is a lawyer and she isn’t.
DeFilippo didn’t immediately respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
