Family Illegal

An eighteen month suspension was imposed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court of an attorney who had an independent contractor relationship with an entity called Family Legal.

Family Legal was a New Hampshire-based network of affiliated lawyers in several New England states. It advertised for clients and referred those clients to its affiliated attorneys.

Family Legal’s agreements provided that the independent contractor would handle referred cases for 40% of the collected fees.

A Michigan man retained the attorney through Family Legal’s advertisement and paid the attorney $3,500 to handle a visitation matter. 

The attorney took the full fee and did not notify Family Legal.

He then failed to respond to the client’s email and was terminated by Family Legal for unrelated reasons. 

The matter came to light when the client contacted Family Legal.

The attorney stipulated to misconduct towards both his client and Family Legal. He agreed to the period of suspension. (Mike Frisch)