MORE RECENT NOTE: FLAHERTY NOW WORKS AT FLAHERTY LEGAL GROUP
I usually don't comment on individual attorneys on this blog because delving into this subject is generally beyond the scope of what I am trying to achieve here. However, from the reports I have received, the infamy of this particular lawyer, Attorney James T. Flaherty, is so great that it is pretty much impossible to ignore.
You may be very skeptical of what I am about to say. Perhaps you did what I did, that is, you googled his name and found out that he is listed as a super lawyer, the recipient of many awards and accolades, a special master, and also affiliated with a law firm here in the State of Connecticut that is also the recipient of widespread admiration and respect. I am sorry to have to tell you, that despite all of the praise and adulation heaped upon Attorney James T. Flaherty, it appears to me that the public image is pretty much all fake.
From what I have heard, this guy is the Dr. George Reardon (think the St. Francis Hospital sexual abuse case) of the legal profession, sowing misery and destruction everywhere that he goes.
There appears to be no limitation on the amount of wrongdoing that Attorney James T. Flaherty is willing to commit. I have had former clients of Attorney James Flaherty tell me that he has packed his bags up right in the middle of a trial and simply walked out of the courtroom.
I have also heard of situations where Attorney Flaherty has demanded that his client provide a check for an additional $20,000 right before walking into the courtroom for trial, stating he would not represent the client unless he received the money on the spot.
Other clients have complained that Attorney Flaherty has charged fees for services and then never followed through on the work, leaving cases in limbo for months with nothing accomplished. In addition, Attorney James Flaherty has been accused of submitting bills to clients where there are multiple charges for the same services, as well as charges for additional attorneys on the bill, attorneys the client never even met or heard of. Even after Attorney James Flaherty stated that he had withdrawn from a case, I have heard still he would continue to incur charges to the tune of thousands of dollars.
The worst of Attorney Flaherty's alleged behavior is that he would apparently threaten to withdraw representation if his clients didn't do what they were told, either by signing agreements they didn't like, or pursuing strategies they didn't like, or by paying Attorney Flaherty thousands of dollars that they couldn't afford.
The charges against Attorney James T. Flaherty go even further than this. Apparently, what I am hearing is that Flaherty allegedly would deliberately lose the cases for his clients, deliberately undermine their reputations by letting false charges stand or by slandering the reputations of his clients in court, meanwhile running up thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees. (I've heard of former clients owing Attorney Flaherty as little as $2,000.00 but also sums of money as high as $200,000 or more.) Then he allegedly takes them to collection, forecloses on their homes, and garnishes their wages.
With behavior as egregious as this, you would think that fellow attorneys would report this man for violations of his professional ethics, or that he would eventually be disciplined by the Statewide Grievance Committee, and apparently this has happened a few times. Otherwise, I understand several grievances were filed against this attorney, but did not succeed, even when the complaints were fully documented and airtight!
Or at the very least, you would think judges in civil court would figure out and condemn the game he is playing with former clients since Attorney Flaherty and his crew keep on showing up in pursuit of them. There are almost 70 collection cases in civil court under the name of his law firm, O'Connell, Flaherty & Attmore. But apparently not, because when these clients seek to defend themselves in court, they unformly lose, even when Attorney Flaherty has the most flimsy kind of case and when former clients' have overwhelming evidence that they have been cheated, lied to, threatened, and abused.
Now, I hate to think what I often think--that the Statewide Grievance Committee is a complete sham and that Attorneys like Flaherty are simply bribing judges but the fact that Attorney Flaherty has been allowed to pursue these criminal activities without any consequences for as long as he has (over a decade at least) certainly makes you think the worst.
Recently, Attorney James T. Flaherty's law firm was featured in the Connecticut Law Tribune in an article entitled "A Last Ditch Effort to Collect Fees" that highlighted and whitewashed the collection activities of the firm. See this link: http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?id=36704 . When one former client attempted to get the editor in chief, Paul Sussman, to cover the clients' side of the story detailing Attorney Flaherty's abuses which I have summarized in this blog, he refused to follow through or return phone calls and emails.
I am sorry to say this, but it seems as though lawyers protect their own, no matter how criminal.
Be that as it may, I am not going to tell you what to do with your divorce. Your life is your own. But don't be stupid and hire this attorney, this firm, or any attorney or paralegal, or secretary or receptionist that works with him.
Just so you get more detail regarding Attorney James T. Flaherty so you can avoid him, he now works at a separate company O'Connell, Flaherty, & Attmore-West in West Hartford, with his best pals Attorney Sandi Girolomo and Attorney Pam Magnano, both of whom are, in my opinion, equally evil. Still the parent company, O'Connell, Flaherty and Attmore must be equally evil, in my view, since they put up with him for so long.
Remember this when you think of Attorney Flaherty--from everything I have seen and heard, it appears that he is rotten to the core. Stay away from him, for your own sake.
