Marks Michael H Atty

Retained Attorney Michael Marks with a fixed fee arrangement to handle my mother’s affairs once she become ill and no longer able to care for herself. I paid the first half ($ 3000) of the fixed fee. After a brief stay in the hospital and a care facility, my mother unfortunately passed away. Because of her untimely death, he was not able to take any substantial action on my mother’s behalf. For this reason, I felt I was due a partial refund. My brother personally visited the law office to follow up on this matter (since he lives in Pittsburgh and I live in New Jersey) and he was told by the attorney’s legal aide that we were due an approximately $ 2700 refund and she apologized for the delay in cutting a check. When no check was forthcoming, I inquired further. Michael Marks responded with a carefully-​worded letter stating that because we chose the fixed fee option, we were not entitled to a refund, and further that he «gets paid for knowing what to do and coming up with the underlying strategy, not just for carrying it out». He listed the specific issues that he worked on and stated that the flat fee «is not a fee calculated according to the attorney time expended».