The red flags waved ominously when the Connecticut Statewide Grievance Committee discovered during a recent grievance hearing that Bridgeport family law attorney Althea S. Dinan charged a client approximately $90 for a paralegal to fax a document — a rate assigned to work completed by the attorney.
Further investigation by the panel reviewing the matter uncovered separate fees charged at the $350 hourly attorney rate agreed to by the client, although work was performed by paralegals or staff. In addition, it found that Dinan billed 30 minutes “for preparing what appears to be a simple cover letter forwarding standard discovery requests,” the committee noted, and billed another 30 minutes “to prepare motions for continuance that consisted of checking off some boxes and adding one sentence to a standardized court form.”
