O'CONNELL, FLAHERTY, & ATTMORE, O'CONNELL, ATTMORE, & MORRIS, FLAHERTY LEGAL GROUP? COME OUT, COME OUT, WHATEVER YOU'RE CALLED! THE CYNTHIA J. AGOSTINO CASE!

Is any one surprised? 

 

It looks like we have another lawsuit in the making against O'Connell, Flaherty & Attmore, LLC, O'Connell, Attmore, and Morris, LLC, or what is it called--I'm getting all mixed up. 

 

Apparently, I am not the only one! 

 

It turns out, Cynthia J. Agostino became all mixed up too during her recent divorce!  Originally, Ms. Agostino first approached O'Connell, Flaherty, & Attmore, LLC in 2002 at which time she was told about all the wonderful staff attorneys that would be available should her divorce require additional support. 

 

Fast forward to 2011 when Ms. Agostino finally decided to move forward on her divorce.  By then Attorney James T. Flaherty and some of his gal pals Attorney Pam Magnano and Sandi Girolomo had separated from the original firm and formed a new company with a similar sounding name--O'Connell, Flaherty & Attmore -- West, LLC. 

It appeared to be a part of the original company since, according to Agostino, the names on the office door of the West Hartford office included, allegedly, the names Attorney O'Connell, Attorney Flaherty and Attorney Attmore.  So it was, indeed, easy to assume the two offices remained part of the same law firm, but with an additional branch.  In fact that wasn't the case.  Attorney Flaherty had actually established an entirely separate law firm. 

 

However, allegedly they didn't inform Cynthia Agostino of that fact. 

 

As a result, allegedly she was left with the impression that she was dealing with the same law firm she had been dealing with in 2002 and was deceived into believing that she was contracting with the same law firm with a depth of experience and qualified, experienced personnel, when instead she was only dealing with Attorney Flaherty and his harpies. 

 

Later on, allegedly Attorney Flaherty quietly started using the name Flaherty Legal Group on court documents submitted on Ms. Agostino's behalf, but they did so without informing her.

 

But this is not the worst of it.  As Cynthia Agostino's divorce continued, Attorney James Flaherty allegedly submitted a whole bunch of motions on behalf of Ms. Agostino and then abandoned them so they were never followed through on in court.  I can tell you something very similar happened to a friend of mine, so these particular allegations sound very credible.  

 

The few motions he did follow up on, Attorney Flaherty handled incompetently allegedly.  For instance, the Complaint states that "A motion for the husband to pay educational expenses resulted in an order for the payment of tuition only when Attorney Flaherty failed to alert the Court that participation in books, food and housing expenses for the Parties' child was also required." 

 

The next thing that Attorney James T. Flaherty did was allegedly that when Cynthia Agostino gave Flaherty her compliance with production requests, he then misplaced the production materials and never gave them to her ex husband's attorneys.  As a result, allegedly, Ms. Agostino was slammed with a bunch of contempt citations from her ex husband's attorney. 

 

Right in the middle of all that Attorney James T. Flaherty allegedly, in typical Flaherty style, decided to withdraw from the case.  Raise your hands, former clients of Jim Flaherty--Sound familiar????

 

And of course, we all know how it looks bad for the client when an attorney withdraws. 

 

The telling point that Ms. Cynthia Agostino makes is that the Representation Agreement which she and Attorney James T. Flaherty signed states the following: "It is further agreed and understood that O'CONNELL, FLAHERTY & ATTMORE -- WEST, LLC will use their best efforts in representing me [the Plaintiff] in connection with this matter." 

 

Well, clearly, the law firm allegedly failed to and refused to use its best efforts in representing the Plaintiff. 

 

And, as prior reports on this disgraceful law firm have shown, it pretty much did the same thing with dozens and dozens of other former clients. 

 

The Attorney General's Office has been informed of this.  The Office of the Disciplinary Counsel has been informed of this.  Statewide Grievance has been informed of this.  And what have they done to correct this situation?  Absolutely nothing!  So much for allowing the legal profession to regulate itself!

 

As a result of Attorney James T. Flaherty's alleged incompetence which I have described in this blog, Ms. Agostino was forced to hire another law firm and pay an exorbitant amount of approximately $30,000.00 to complete her divorce because Jim Flaherty had made so many mistakes and the subsequent law firm had to play catch up. 

 

Plus, I can imagine, even they figured they ought to cash in on a good opportunity.  Any litigant who has his or her attorney withdraw on them can be assured that their next attorney will charge them five times what they ordinarily receive in attorney fees. 

 

I know other Flaherty victims who have lost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions will not consider this such a bad situation.  However, my best bet is that Flaherty and his pals inflicted much more legal harm on Ms. Agostino--you don't want to be too wordy in a complaint.  Plus, there are the other subtle humiliations this attorney and his girlie crew inflict upon his clients--the unreturned phone calls, the padded bills, the sneering implication that there is something the matter with you, the subtle and not so subtle threats, then the motion to withdraw, often without any warning. 

 

Then they take you to collections.  I could go on. 

 

Usually, Flaherty leaves his victims financially and emotionally destroyed so they are unable to fight back or respond.  Here we have Cynthia Agostino who is standing up for herself, and the many others who are not able to.  I can only commend Ms. Agostino for her courage and willingness to speak out for all of us by filing this law suit.  I will continue to provide updates as the fight for truth and justice continues. 

 

We can only hope that sooner or later one of these lawsuits succeeds in holding Attorney James T. Flaherty to account for his alleged years and years of predatory law practice which has caused financial and emotional harm and damages to multiple victims with the complicity of an all too willing group of compliant judges and various government functionaries at his beck and call. 

RELATED ARTICLES:

http://divorceinconnecticut.blogspot.com/2012/04/different-name-same-old-criminals.html

http://divorceinconnecticut.blogspot.com/2011/11/oconnell-flaherty-attmore-attorney.html

 

http://divorceinconnecticut.blogspot.com/2011/09/multiple-complaints-against-attorney.html

http://divorceinconnecticut.blogspot.com/2013/04/oconnell-flaherty-and-attmore-now.html