ATTORNEY JAMES T. FLAHERTY ATTACKS ANOTHER FORMER CLIENT IN CIVIL COURT!

Last Wednesday, April 29, 2015, I joined Elizabeth Sinatro

at the Civil Courthouse in Hartford, CT as she faced the 

Flaherty Legal Group--Attorney James T. Flaherty and 

Attorney Sandi Girolamo--who were suing her in

collections for fees related to her late father's divorce. 

A graduate of Yale Law School, Ms. Sinatro's Dad was

a well respected Mechanical Engineer and patent

attorney who worked in the area of intellectual

property. 

Not only did he work in private practice for forty years

in Hartford, CT, he was also the President

of the West Hartford Town Planning and Zoning

Committee. As an avid golfer and a very friendly, 

considerate individual, Elizabeth Sinatro's 

father was extremely well liked and well respected

by his peers. 

Ironically, both he and Attorney James T. Flaherty

knew each other quite well. Ordinarily, in

the legal profession you would extend a level

of professional courtesy to another legal

professional. However, in the case of Ms. Sinatro's

father, who was dying at the time, Attorney Flaherty 

entirely disregarded this professional understanding

and victimized his client the same way he had

victimized so many others.

Ms. Sinatro, who was acting on behalf of her father, 

is one of the dozens of former clients Attorney 

James T. Flaherty has taken to Court to collect legal fees. 

At this court hearing, Flaherty and his crew were hoping

to obtain a pre judgment remedy to put a lien on the 

property from the estate to guarantee his fees. This

is the standard operating procedure for Attorney

James T. Flaherty which he has been carrying out

now for at least a decade.

Jim Flaherty and his legal group have a track record

unlike any other attorney or legal practice. How this

group has avoided being disbarred is a mystery, 

perhaps, a mystery that only a thorough investigation

of the CT Judicial Branch could solve.

In this particular case, Attorney Flaherty has taken on an 

entire family. Ms. Sinatro's brother Paul explained the 

circumstances to me in a recent letter, which went as 

follows:

"My late father’s health was declining and his wife filed for 

divorce. Jim Flaherty and the Flaherty Legal Group (FLG) 

represented my father and my sisters and I had Power of 

Attorney and were closely involved with the case. Per FLG
this was a simple case; an uncontested divorce, with one 

home, no businesses to divide and straight forward assets 

(checking, savings, retirement, investments).  FLG 

estimated the cost for the case to be $5-10k. 

However, in violation of standard procedures in these

kinds of divorce cases, FLG did not do any discovery

on the household assets; did not put any protective

orders in place to protect his client and as we learned

after the case was over, they even agreed with the

ex-wife when she refused to turn over financial

statements, something FLG was warned would 

occur. 

FLG's representation bordered on malpractice and, 

when it comes to Attorney James T. Flaherty, in no 

way did he live up to his oath to represent his client

to the best of his abilities. 

In the end, our father was coerced into a settlement

that equated to 36% of the entire estate and FLG

billed him over $60,000 for the expedited divorce

that had one deposition and no hearing. 

When I questioned the final bill, Jim Flaherty became 

hostile and aggressive. When we refused to pay the 

trumped up bill, he “fired” our father as a client (charging 

$5,800 to file the paperwork with the court) and put a 

charging lien on my father’s portion of the net proceeds of 

the sale of his house (this was recently deemed illegal by 

the CT Supreme Court) and has filed suit against my sister
as executrix of the estate.

Following our experience we have come to understand

what a monster FLG is and we have learned of

numerous clients' lives that have been harmed by

this man and his team. As you probably know, FLG

has sued over 69 clients. Through my rudimentary

research I cannot find a Marital Law practice that

has sued anywhere close to that number of 

clients during the same period of time. Even large,

active firms with 25+ attorney’s don’t sue at this pace. 

Currently, Jim Flaherty has 3 open cases, two are where

he is suing clients (we are one of them) and I am not

sure about the other. His legal team of Sandi Girolamo

and Pamela Magnano do not have any active clients.

This firm is not the business of law.

At the end of the hearing on Wednesday, Judge Peck 

decided to grant a continuance in the case even though it 

was clear that, based upon the evidence, the case should 

simply have been dismissed. Even more troubling, from 

what I have heard, is the fact that at the same time 

Judge Peck gave Attorney James T. Flaherty fairly
detailed instructions on what legal steps he needed
to take in order to overcome the technical legal
problems in the case. 

She indicated that she was troubled that Attorney

Flaherty might be hindered in obtaining an outcome

that would benefit him. To me, it seems unlikely that

Judge Peck or any other judges at the Civil Court are

unaware of Attorney Flaherty's blatant misuse of

the Civil Court as his own private collection agency, 

and as a means to manhandle and blackmail his

former clients. That it has come to the point 

where the judges are taking their preferential

treatment of Attorney Flaherty to the level of 

providing him with legal advice, this is unconscionable. 

Has it come to the point where justice is for sale in the 

courtrooms in the State of Connecticut, and

influence triumphs over doing what is right?