Bad Blogs?

Have you been victimized by negative online bloggers?  How does your small business typically respond when to being dinged online?  What advice would you offer to other small businesses?

Many businesses find themselves helpless and realize engaging in response makes it worse.

New businesses in particular often suffer and often don’t realise that their competitors can in some cases be behind these bad bloggers.

How would you deal with them if you knew it was definitely affecting your business?

Legal Services Commission partial response to Gross Overcharging case!

The Legal Services Commission are a joke.  Take years to investigate a claim and come back with the most ridiculous response….see the partial response below…..

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More will follow on this saga shortly as this kind of behavior has to stop and the Corporate Watchdog needs to be made redundant if they can’t do their job.

Cornwall Stodart Lawyers penalised hard by Supreme Court.

Cornwall Stodart Lawyers have been ordered to pay back in total nearly $250,000.00 to a client it ripped off.

The Supreme Court In June this year made an interim order for them to repay Mr Tony Bulzomi $120,000.00 and yesterday a further order for an additional $120,000.00 odd.

The court penalised them for “gross overcharging” and applied an additional $15,000 penalty on top of a costs order of $75,000 plus $27,000 in interest for breaching the Legal Profession Act.

Mr Bulzomi was pleased with the result having paid more than $415,000.00 to the firm said, “rip off artists like Cornwall Stodart, always get caught in the  end, I hope all of their clients find out about this and I have reported this matter to the Legal Services Commission for investigation. Lets see what they do now.”

Cornwall Stodart Lawyers dragged this matter out according to Mr Bulzomi and as such, Mr Bulzomi says that it is not over by a long shot as far as he is concerned. Those that worked on his file and ripped him off financially are still accountable for the damage they caused him.

Former Partners of Cornwall Stodart Lawyers Mr Wayne Kelcey and Mr Graeme Scott, jumped employment ship during this costs case and now are working once again together at Hall & Willcox Lawyers. They were the two main controlling partners on Mr Bulzomi’s case before the court.

All consumers are urged to check and question their legal bills, no matter how long ago. Major law firms like Cornwall Stodart Lawyers should not get away with this overcharging or ripping off clients like this….simply disgraceful.

Stay tuned, more to follow on this with copies of orders and further information.

Cornwall Stodart Lawyers penalised finally!!

Cornwall Stodart Lawyers have been ordered to pay back in total nearly $250,000.00 to a client it ripped off.

The Supreme Court In June this year made an interim order for them to repay Mr Tony Bulzomi $120,000.00 and yesterday a further order for an additional $120,000.00 odd.

The court penalised them for “gross overcharging” and applied an additional $15,000 penalty on top of a costs order of $75,000 plus $27,000 in interest for breaching the Legal Profession Act.

Mr Bulzomi was pleased with the result having paid more than $415,000.00 to the firm said, “rip off artists like Cornwall Stodart, always get caught in the  end, I hope all of their clients find out about this and I have reported this matter to the Legal Services Commission for investigation. Lets see what they do now.”

Cornwall Stodart Lawyers dragged this matter out according to Mr Bulzomi and as such, Mr Bulzomi says that it is not over by a long shot as far as he is concerned. Those that worked on his file and ripped him off financially are now in his sights to explain.

Mr Wayne Kelcey and Mr Graeme Scott, were the 2 main partners that controlled Mr Bulzomi’s file and interestingly, during the court case, jumped ship and now both yet again work together at another firm called Hall & Willcox Lawyers.

Both Mr Kelcey and Mr Scott, now of Hall & Willcox Lawyers played a huge part in the demise of Mr Bulzomi’s finances whilst at Cornwall Stodart Lawyers. Luckily, the court used common sense and removed nearly a quarter of a million dollars from their “kitty”

Stay tuned for copies of the orders and LSC investigation outcomes, if any.

Collection Point -V- Cornwall Stodart Lawyers

On 5 April, 2013, Collection Point once again were successful in obtaining a costs order against Cornwall Stodart Lawyers.

In the Summons for Taxation, Collection Point are seeking to have bills raised by Cornwall Stodart Lawyers and that have been paid by Collection Point, reviewed for “over charging.” The application was successful by Collection Point, but was resisted by Cornwall Stodart and as such an order for costs in the sum of $18,911.21 was made against Cornwall Stodart to pay Collection Point.

Cornwall Stodart had previously failed to produce all the required Statutory Disclosures for the hearing on 4 and 5 April and subject to an order now made against them on 4 April, 2013 they now “must” produce to the Supreme Court, by the 30 April, 2013, all Statutory Disclosures made in respect of the relationship / engagement of their services.

Cornwall Stodart Lawyers have also been ordered to produce to the Supreme Court all Costs agreements entered into with Collection Point by the 30 April, 2013 and by no later than 28 June, 2013 have been ordered to produce a full itemised bill of their charges made and paid by Collection Point.

The further hearing against Cornwall Stodart will then return before the Supreme Court on 8 and 9 August, 2013 and once again, Collection Point will endeavour to have Cornwall Stodart Lawyers’ Bills or Invoices reviewed for “overcharging” allegations.

It is to be noted that this is the third order made against Cornwall Stodart Lawyers, by Collection Point and it appears that countless delays, such as those noted above in the 4 April, 2013 orders seem to be “dragging” on the issue.

Collection Point are extremely frustrated at the length of time that continues to be given to a “major and sophisticated” law firm in producing documentation that would ordinarily be simple to produce by them.

You may recall, Collection Point was successful in a previous matter against Cornwall Stodart in April, 2012 almost one year ago now and Cornwall Stodart were ordered to pay back Collection Point approximately $36,000.00 of a $46,000 odd bill. This “gross overcharging” result has not seemed to raise any eyebrows with the Legal Services Commissioner as far as we are aware, but surely, at some point the Legal Services Commissioner must intervene and investigate these former matters and the current matters against the same Law Firm Cornwall Stodart.

In another matter, Collection Point is also aware that Cornwall Stodart Lawyers are currently being pursued by one of its colleagues, Mr. Tony Bulzomi. Mr. Bulzomi alleges that in an 8 month period utilising the services of Cornwall Stodart lawyers, he was charged and paid in excess of $420,000.00

Mr. Bulzomi is currently pursuing them in the Supreme Court and recently advised our office that “enormous delays” are occurring and the matter has had at least 10 to 15 days of being heard and a further 1 to 2 days will now be required in June this year.

Mr. Bulzomi informs us that, if successful and due to the amount of money involved that he has departed with, he will be applying for not only costs, but also interest under the Penalty Interest Rates Act and will pursue this matter vigorously with the Legal Services Commissioner and the media.

Finally, and as a side note, one of Cornwall Stodart Lawyers’ Partners, Mr. Wayne Kelcey, who was a main person in the billing and charging of fees to both Collection Point and Mr. Tony Bulzomi, appears to have recently departed from Cornwall Stodart Lawyers heightening further interest in this matter.

Both proceedings against Cornwall Stodart Lawyers will continue and we will keep you informed as to its progress. Once again, a special thanks to our very thorough and competent Costs Lawyer Mr. John White and our legal team Christopher Bunnett Lawyers.

We will publish a copy of the orders shortly.