Melrose Attorney Charged with Embezzlement, Legal Malpractice?

Legal Malpractice Embezzlement. The case of an attorney in Melrose, Massachusetts. Horrible story, but this is some of what we deal with when we represent victims of legal malpractice here in Massachusetts. Good morning. My name is Neil Burns. I’m an attorney, and along with my partner Roshan Jain, represent victims of legal malpractice here in Massachusetts. We’re not involved in the case in Melrose — prosecuting, defending, we don’t know the victims — but we know the news, and we know that this happens a lot. We usually represent victims of legal malpractice where the attorney was negligent. Embezzlement implies knowing stealing. There’s a criminal aspect of that case, of course, and in that case, the person is being prosecuted by the district attorney. Again, we’re not involved in that, but I’ve been asked to talk about it because it touches on a lot of what we do deal with: a lot of trust and estate cases, divorce cases, and real estate cases where embezzlement isn’t what’s charged, but overreaching, conflict of interest, negligent handling of a case, and overbilling are typical things we hear in legal malpractice. And the embezzlement charge is another whole extreme. That’s literally stealing or taking someone’s money. When we have a legal malpractice case like this, it can be complicated, especially if it’s a trust and estate or divorce case, because the other attorney knows everything and helped, or tried to help, or tried to help him or herself, but was involved in the case. They know a lot more than we do at the outset. On the other hand, we can look at the big picture and say, “Huh, there’s something that smells wrong here. Something smells bad. Something is not good.” There was an estate of a million dollars, and somehow $500,000 was billed. Or there was a divorce involving a house and a 401(k) account, and somehow $200,000 was billed. Something doesn’t look right. Sometimes the attorneys are asked to do all this extra work. Sometimes they take it on themselves and overdo it. And sometimes they negligently represent someone so badly that they lose rights or money. So if you’re a victim of legal malpractice or embezzlement, give us a call. I’ve been practicing law for 40 years, representing people in Massachusetts for legal malpractice here at 6 Beacon Street for 38 years. We’re experienced, we’re aggressive, and we care about you. Call Burns & Jain. It’s a free initial consultation: 617-227-7423.