Help me fight an unjust invoice from a law firm

★ ★ ★ UPDATE: Campaign goal is met!!! ★ ★ ★

I can't believe how quickly y'all came through! This campaign is CLOSED to new donations because I've met my goal.

I'll be filing my arbitration tomorrow.

I know how to get in touch with TWO of you, but the anonymous donor who took it the the finish line with an amazing show of generosity— I don't know who you are! Please message me with your contact information.

If I succeed in arbitrating this invoice down then I will have the money to reimburse you, and I'd really, really like to do that.  So please get in touch with me!!!


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SHORT VERSION: I hired a law firm to sue a debt collector for illegal practices. The firm artificially bumped up their invoice to me so much that after I get taxed on the settlement I'm going to owe about $1,100 *more* than what will be left over from the settlement.

If I don't do something I will end up over $1k poorer than when I started the process.

I don't *have* that much money, and I can't go that deeply into debt with the IRS. If I have to pay that much monthly until it's paid back I will have to give up my house and my car and maybe file bankruptcy. All to enrich a greedy law firm!

So: I need $175 to file a petition for arbitration in dispute of the invoice.

And I need to do so in the next week or so!!




LONG VERSION: A skeezy debt collector in the Midwest started sending me threatening letters saying they would take legal action on a debt from 14 years ago. The statute of limitations on the debt in question had expired at least four years prior, and I knew this. So I contacted a lawyer to see what could be done.

They informed my of my rights under the FDCPA— Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This act allowed me to sue them for damages, permanently stop the threatening letters and all attorneys fees would get paid by the debt collector. I was assured I would pay nothing out of pocket.

When they finally were negotiating a settlement with the debt collector I started asking what attorneys fees would be. They said they would let me know tomorrow, then the next day said I would know tomorrow, over and over. Finally they negotiated the settlement up to $6,000. I asked how much would be attorneys fees, and they said they could let me know the next day— but they needed me to sign the settlement. So I did.

Literally *as soon* as I signed the settlement they told me I would get $1,000 back.

I immediately started to raise a stink— I pointed out to them that the IRS taxes me on the *entire* settlement (all $6,000 of it!) no matter how much they charge me for fees.

I pointed them to this article: https://socialchangenyu.com/review/consumer-protection-and-tax-law-how-the-tax-treatment-of-attorneys-fees-undermines-the-fair-debt-collection-practices-act/

I showed them the math, that taxes on $6,000 will entirely be taxed at the top bracket for me, at 22% federal, 6.33% on the state level and 6.45% on the city level I will owe $2,086.80.

And they want to only give me $1,000 of the settlement.



I felt it was deceptive for them to withhold the amount of the fees until after I had signed the settlement. The attorney I was working with sounded ashamed and a little bit broken when I spoke to her on the phone about it; she let me know that when she spoke with the managing attorney he said "That's not our responsibility, the tax situation was outlined in the retainer he signed."

Then they started asking me for two years of my tax returns so that I could "prove" that I was telling the truth about the amount of taxes.

All this while they refused to give me an itemized invoice for the $5,000.

When it finally came I saw immediate problems with it— there was a charge they had "graciously" crossed out for an initial consult of $450 for one hour of an attorney's time. It was a five minute phone call with their receptionist.



They also want to bill me $1,800 (four hours at $450) for drafting the complaint— but when they sent me the complaint I noticed about five or six errors in it that showed they had clearly copied and pasted it from another case, and I had to correct them. I'm going to ask the arbitrator to take their bill down by three hours— which will save me $1,350. With the $2,350 left over from the settlement I can pay off my tax bill of $2,083.80 and I'll have about $266.20 left over. I can even return every one of your donations if you'd like me to.

I just need $175 up front to file a petition for arbitration in dispute of the invoice .

And I need it quickly— in the next week or so!

*ANY* help at all is greatly appreciated, even if you can only donate $5 or $6.