On Aug. 30, in Balducci v. Cige, the Appellate Division affirmed a Law Division judgment which declared defendant-attorney’s retainer agreement with plaintiff “unenforceable and void,” and dismissed his counterclaim for fees and costs. As a result, the attorney’s recovery for legal services in representing plaintiff on a claim filed under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) was based on quantum meruit. The court found that the attorney “violated his professional responsibility to explain the Agreement’s material terms” so that his client “could make an informed decision about retaining him.” Thus, he “did not explain the effect [the retainer agreement] would have on any recovery” or the “alternatives to such an agreement.” Nor did he tell his client about “the tens of thousands of dollars in expenses she would have to pay as the case progressed.”

Various disputes arose between the parties and when plaintiff terminated the attorney’s services for lack of preparation and attention to the matter, he told her that she owed him approximately $250,000 based on his hourly rate and certain other charges about which she had been unaware. The retainer agreement provided that the attorney’s fee would be calculated based on one of three methodologies that would yield the highest fee: (1) his $475 hourly rate; (2) a contingent fee equaling 37½ percent of the net recovery, including any attorney fee award; or (3) statutory fees awarded by the court under LAD’s fee-shifting provision. Other aspects of the attorney’s billing practices were also disturbing. For example, the attorney charged one dollar for every fax and every email he sent in addition to charging for his time, and 25 cents for every page photocopied. One of his bills included $1,700 for emails. Moreover, amazingly, he told his client that he was “padding his bills” so that when the defendants are “found guilty” they will have to pay for it. And the agreement required payment of a percentage of the client’s wages for one year upon her reinstatement to her job, if that were the remedy obtained.