Hess Kennedy Company

Edward I think you posted the same post at least 6 times. Typically when someone posts something over and over again I delete all but one, but instead I will leave all of the repitition here just to prove a point.

You haven't posted anything untrue, although the millions I would dare say is an exaggeration. I think everyone knows that when they register that the staff of DebtCC will use the ranking chart to select company's that will be beneficial to that person based on geography and their financial situation.

I understand that you are upset and that you feel your company's name has been slandered. Does belittling this website and it's owner improve your situation in any way? You know your company's success stories and the people that you have helped. Try to find some peace in that. Listen to the suggestions of those who are not as happy to improve your company's customer service and organizational skills.

Peace to you.

Ed,
I really don't want to bust you wide open so please acknowledge what is public record. I have a copy of your sec. of state filing with the state of florida.One person with address in singapore and one in grand caymen island. Oh,by the way truth is absolute defense in slander,libel,& defamation.All the knowledge I have learned on your public record has not be shared with this board openly yet. Notice I said yet. The only member who has it now is one of your former client.

It????????s been very frustrating dealing with Edward (I am not sure what is his Last Name, since he has used Kennedy and Cherry interchangeably).

I do not want to go on a big rant so I will just try to answer things point by point:

A. I wish I made millions of dollars. I wish there was a way in which the community could see my tax return without me being worried about my identity being stolen. Since I do not know of a way to do so, for the time being I will share the picture of my car and picture of my apartment with all of you.

B. As some of you know that my Dad is an attorney and my Grand Dad was an attorney. My Dad is the owner of a Law Firm which was established in 1937. My Dad has been trying to set up a consumer law firm to create a balance of power between Credit card companies which make Billions of Dollars in profits and people like me and you who have to defend ourselves against the army of lawyers and lobbyists that the credit card companies can afford to hire and for that my Dad has been trying to partner with some attorneys. For this purpose I have met close to 6 attorneys and one of them I met was Edward. After meeting him I realized:
1. He calls himself an attorney but he is not a licensed attorney. He held himself out to be an attorney in front of me for more then a year. Then one day when I asked him for his bars number this is how the conversation went:

Edward: "Hold on let me get it for you" Pause for 5 minutes over the phone
Edward: "Can I have your fax number I will fax it to you"
Vikas: "Here is my fax number xxx-xxx-xxxx"
Pause on his end for 5 minutes
Edward: "Oh !! Here is my Bar number yyy-yyyy"
Vikas: "So which bar are you licensed in????????
Edward: ???????I am licensed in New York"

I called up the New York bar association and they said that the number "yyy-yyyy" was not a valid bar number. I requested them to check with his last name and first name and that also showed up no record. Then I checked with the Florida attorney bar association and even they had no record of him

One of the best decisions I made in my life was not to associate with him.

If Edward has presented himself as a licensed attorney to any one of you, you might want to make sure that he is licensed.

C. I received an email from him about a week back threatening me with Law Suit and asking me to reveal information about the people posting on the website. I have a firm policy that I will not edit any content posted on the website neither will I reveal any personal identifying information like IP address when some one posts on the website. Since I did not give in to his demands he is out here trying to take revenge I guess.

D. There are two kinds of signup's on the website "Community sign up" and "Counseling sign up" When a visitor does a "Community sign up" no company gets his/her information and not even DebtCC sends him any advertisement in the email. When a visitor does a "Counseling sign up" only one company gets the visitors information. DebtCC does not send the visitor any advertisement in the email nor it ever calls the visitor.

E. I want all of you know that the revenue model of this website is the advertisements from Google that people see on the top when they come to the website and also we get paid by referring people to companies for the free counseling. The money that the website makes is enough to support the 10 people or so who work full time on this website and keep the servers running and the VOIP system working. Yes it pays my rent and my electricity bills but does not give me any luxury.

I have shared with some of you who I have spoken to over the phone or met in person, I would make more money if I shut the forum down. Since then people will not get their questions answered with "Community sign up" and they will need to do "Counseling sign up". Running a busy forum like this costs me resources in terms of b/w hardware and time of my team members. My team still does it because of people like Jessi, Mischelle, Polly and countless others who come here everyday and extend a helping hand to other people who they have never met have no association with and neither any expectation of anything in return.


F. Edward mentions:
Quote:

As most of you know I was involved for a period of time in forming the law firm that Vikas mentioned above.

I want you all to know that Vikas is a kind hearted sincere and genuine man and a total computer geek. DebtCC is not his full time job nor his bread and butter. Vikas is a researcher at Stanford University.

From what little I understand about programming he is working with a team to create a search engine that is better than Google...imagine that...I cannot wait to see it!

I traveled with Vikas last October to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to meet a colleague of Edward Kennedy/Cherry, who is not directly affiliated with Hess Kennedy Company, as well as Edward himself.

Before I left for Florida I put my amateur internet investigation skills to use to search for information on Edward and the other gentleman. Edward is affiliated to a company called iBill through his father. This company got into major troubles with the FTC a few years ago. (Warning: iBill's website has pornographic content so visit it at your own risk...)

Despite this information I still went into the trip with an open mind. With all of the company's that this website contains information about I had never read anything about Hess Kennedy, and I chose not to until after I returned home in an effort to keep that open mind.

Edward is a likeable fellow and he truly extended warm hospitality toward Vikas and I during our visit. I've always said that I was raised on a farm and I can smell bull $hit a mile away though, and as Vikas and I relaxed during our first evening I shared with him my gut feeling was not to associate this law firm with Edward.

Edward and his partner were kind enough to extend an invitation to me to spend a entire day in their office. I witnessed both the customer service and the negotiations. Edward's wife handles the negotiation, and she is a very lovely lady. I witnessed real results while watching this lady work. She settled a number of debts on behalf of the client, giving the clients a real savings.

The customer service area is filled with friendly and kind people as well, but they are not what I would classify as being organized. The phones rang steady and the people tried their hardest to keep up.

That evening I shared with Vikas the things that I learned we should do and a lot of things we shouldn't do.

As Vikas stated Edward is not a licensed attorney in Florida. He stated that he was licensed at one time in the State of New York, but he failed to maintain the continuing education requirement, resulting in his license being pulled. I called the New York Bar and they told me that Edward was given a temporary license to practice law in New York for one case (I assume it to be the iBill). However, New York told me that he was granted this temporary license because he was a licensed attorney in the State of Florida, yet after calling the Florida Bar, they have no record of him ever being licensed there at all.

I would love to know where Edward attended law school, and if he has ever been a legally licensed attorney in any state of this country.

Edward's colleague is a kind young man with a great future ahead of him if he disconnects himself from Edward. This young man comes from a good family and he is highly intelligent. Vikas and I chose not to work with him only because he would not sever his ties to Edward. I wish him well.

Vikas has met with many lawyers during this venture so please keep an open mind in this. Vikas had no idea what he was getting into here. We all live and learn.

* Changes made as per TOS.

My biggest personal beef with Edward (I have been biting my tongue bloody for months by not confronting you with this!) is that he pre-maturely filed articles of incorporation for the law firm. Pre-maturely meaning, there was not a contract in place, and we hadn't even met the man yet.

You forged my signature!!!!

I cannot even begin to tell you how violated I felt when I opened this article of mail and saw that this man had the audacity to forge my good name on to an official document that will be in existence even after the corporation is dissolved.

Yeah I was and still am pissed off.

I feel a little better now...

I will chime in with this little deal:

I have never been called from this site for debt consoling. No one has ever called or emailed for the same from any debt relief company.

Now - why? Simple. When I joined this site, before there was two types of registration, I put a simple line in my registration form - "I do not need debt consoling, so you don't need to contact me." I have never been called.

So with that small story, I think it states that my information is NOT sold. If it was, many companies would ignore that line and contact me in the hope of securing any type of business from me. It is a known fact businesses are IN business for one reason - profit. That is their driving factor. Very few companies exist for the good will factor. It's only that their level of ethics will differ, and that separates the warm helpful companies from the "concerned with maximizing the bottom line" companies.

Looks like Edward was playing a very dangerous game in coming here to post his information and attempt to defend himself. Also looks like he may have lost.

Suebeehoney,
Hey Lady and the rest of you on the board. I am currently doing a research on this firm with its associted partners. I will let all of you know what pops up.

As was discussed before, your use of the words scam, fraud, etc. tarnish the great minds working for Hess Kennedy Company.

The fact remains that each client that has complained here begins their complaint with "I signed up through Consumer credit counseling of America."

Edward is a business consultant who worked with Vikas as Vikas was trying to open his own law firm and stop losing millions of dollars selling these leads to consumer credit counseling of America.

I am the compliance officer at Hess Kennedy Company, and I am now responsibile for dealing with all the commplaints generated by this lead generation forum.

Please stop me Vikas if I am lying. It is a fact that your leads were sold from this forum to CCCOA. You have made millions of dollars off of these people selling their leads.

You can come here and throw a red herring up all you want about Edward, but the fact remains, these people come here and are dissatisfied because of what expectations their credit counselors gave them..

Once again i implore you to sign up with the Firm direct. Speak with a paralegal, take advantage of the Pro Bono services.

Vikas, if you like, I can access Edward's email messages to and from yourself and post them here.

Control your forum when people post libelous statements about all these great people you and your associate met here in Florida.

* Changes made as per TOS.

I encourage you to visit DebtCC's ranking chart:

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/american/

There are over 300 companies that purchase leads* from DebtCC.

CCCOA could very well be on this list, but there is not one company that has a monopoly.

*Till June'07, we had a referral business policy, but post-June'07, we have shifted to a new business model where we earn from advertising. Please go through the 2nd point of our site's Term of usage and conditions of service - Jason

I am disgusted with this last post and I do not even know where to start expressing my level of disgust. So I will just try to keep it simple and again answer each point at a time.

Quote:

I agree. So stop posting about a non-employee of Hess Kennedy Company, that is what i meant by red herring. Edward has nothing to do with someone being dissatisfied with Hess Kennedy services.

It is apparent that there customer service is wanting. I am sure they will have to address that.

This thread started because people came in here and called Hess Kennedy Company a den of theives. They did this because of Creditors and debt collectors. Look how we have just assisted in their poisen. They are creating enmity between Debt Collection Defense attorneys that succeed in knocking them out.

If anyone in this forum truly beleives they received no service contact the help desk with your information. I am convinced and have proof that anyone that asks for pro bono help gets it.

I suggest that if this forum really wants to help people, do like the BBB does, act as an arbitrator and post the results in a truthful manner.

The compliance officer at Hess Kennedy Company is Adam. He will assist in any issue.

The taunts coming from my keyboard are immature and i aplogize. It pissed me off that in order to post a reply to a lie about Hess Kennedy, I had to register, and after i registered i received a call from consumer credit counseling of America, a company with a horrible record with the BBB. IT did not make sense that this forum would direct me, or anyone else there.

Edward,
I'm the guy that spoke about public records.Perhaps you would explain something to me.

I cross referenced records from the better business bureau with the Mass. Sec. of State corporate records and it seems the exact address of Hess Kennedy and Consumer credit counseling of America,Inc. are one and the same. This exact address also shows Financial Planning International Inc.,& Business Consulting International,Inc. These are the ids from Sec. of State
office. #000934069,000934070,& 000934068.All of these businesses are registered with the name of Eric Nabydoski as agent. The address is as follows:

1060 Osgood Street
North Andover,Ma. 01845
By the way before you ask,I used reverse address directory to verify and Hess Kennedy is not there.I would imagine better business bureau does not know of this conflict yet.Also I would hope the above person is not the attorney for Mass as he is not a licensed attorney for Mass. Bar.

After reading these posts, it is my opinion that you "Edward" are doing much more harm than good to Hess Kennedy.

I am not and never have been a client of Hess Kennedy.

Hess Kennedy Company used to receive referrals from the Consumer credit counseling of America.

Hess Kennedy Company was a member in good standing of the BBB and participated in the reliability program.

The BBB revoked our membership because we were receiving referrals from consumer credit counseling of America.

We have ceased business relations with this firm and will be re-applyng for BBB Membership sometime in the Spring. We hope they will have us as a member.

Also, I am the only one authorized to post any statement regarding Hess Kennedy Company. No other posts are authorized nor reflect the opinion of the Firm.

I cannot address consumer issues in a public manner, other than the question you pose regarding compliance. Consumers are asked to address their concerns by sending mail to: help(at)hesskennedylaw.com

To answer your question, when Hess Kennedy Company received referrals from Consumer Credit Counseling, Consumer Credit Counseling edited our letterhead without authorization and directed paperwork to Mass.

When we discovered this issue through the BBB of West Palm Beach Florida, we addressed the issue.

We have no offices in Mass at this time however, we do retain litigation counsel in that state, should we need to litigate against a creditor or debt collector, or defend a lawsuuit filed against a client.

I hope this has helped.

Adam.

Well I am not sure if you are ed with a new name or if you are in fact a different employee.I can say it is refreshing to finally hear somes facts and truth from your firm. I will tell you as I told Ed. If we call discuss an issue like adults,I am all for it. I just get a major issue when someone is walking on a customer that is in fact going to be feeding you and keeping you warm in your own home. If your firm is willing to address the multiple issues that I have located on this board from your clients,I would be willing to listen to what you have to say. If your clients express that they are happy,than we can probably throw tons of referrals your way.

The main thing is due to the post Ed posted on this board and legal threats he made,you will have an uphill battle.
I am having a hard time believing that ccca would cause you to lose membership in bbb but I will not comment on it futher for now.

For sure. I can do the best at providing assistance on the back end, but i am restricted to the proper channels. The help desk.

What i can do is introduce anyone that seeks service through the help desk to this forum.

As far as the BBB, we asked that when anyone contacts them in West Palm Beach to explain exactly why they revoked our membership. Whether or not they would is really up to their policies.

We took a lot of heat when this happened because people that retained the firm remembered that we were memebers and then were really concerned why we are no longer.

Let me know if i can help. As said before I have no problem working with any client existing, past, or future.

Adam.

I have to say thank you to Vikas and Polly for posting their experiences with this Edward character. When I signed up with the forum, I signed up because I was in the payday loan trap and needed debt counseling. I do not feel like my information was sold because this was something that I had requested. I'm glad that I was not contacted by Hess Kennedy. I think what people are speaking here is nothing but the truth. It's not like someone woke up one day and said today is the day I'm going to talk smack about Hess Kennedy. The majority of us here speak nothing but the truth from our own experiences. I know my identity is protected because I have had stalkers here. I know Mike and his staff did a great job last week when someone called trying to find out my personal information. I almost left the forum because I could not stand dealing with another stalker. But I decided to stay because of all my wonderful friends here. I have learned a lot and I have been able to help others. To me, that is what this forum is truly about. Yes, I have a long way to go but I am able to find some good advice here. I believe in Vikas, Mike, and the rest of the forum staff. I believe they are doing a good job and I'm glad that you guys were smart enough not to deal with someone who pretends to be something they aren't. Edward has repeated himself with the same garbage. I think people are just calling a spade a spade. Nothing more, nothing less.

Vikas,

I have a question for you. Since you are a millionaire now, could you throw a couple of hundred thousand my way? LOL! Just jokes :-) I didn't see the original post about what Edward posted about your financial situation but that is personal info. It should not be posted on the boards.

Edward,

The professionally debtor comment kind of cracked me up. I guess I could fall into that category at this point in my life. I was laid off from my job last month after several years. I was laid off due to downsizing basically. I'm unemployed at the moment and I'm also in debt. Does that make me a professional debtor? I guess that's better than being a liar. :-)

Mishele LOL I thinik we are all professional debtors. I just wanted to put my 2 cents worth in. When I signed up I was not contacted by a debt counselor so I know there is different kinds of sign ups. Vikas I appreciate the job that you and Mike do very much. Your personal business is none of anyones business. You never ask us about our business. I am with Mishele I was having problems myself last week. I know it was one of the payday people making the threats. However I will not be bullied into leaving this forum. I have made some wonderful friends here and I cant help it that they are upset with my state. LOL KYSIDE38

When I signed up here, I requested the debt counseling phone call. I received a call that offered little in the way of counseling, just an offer to join the debt settlement program, at a cost that was prohibitive to me, and they said it was for "legal fees" involved in the settlement of my payday loans. I didn't think their program was in my best interest, so I didn't go with them. They called twice more, but after I let them know I wasn't interested, the calls stopped. I've never been contacted by any other debt consolidation/settlement company as a result of my registration here. So to say my info was sold is probably not exactly true. If it was sold, it was only to the one company that contacted me, which was fine by me!

I love this site, and have met many wonderful people here. I plan on staying and helping as many as possible.

kyside,

We can stalk each other LOL! I'm not going anywhere either. It just makes me want to fight more. Mike was a big help to me last week and I truly appreciate that. :-)

Mishele I will be stalking you soon. LOL If they have nothing better to do I dont care. Let them come on down and they will get a WV ars whopping. LOL Like Hank says Country Boys can Survive. LOL KYSIDE38

Keep up the good fight girl. I think you have them running scared. :-)

I would like to say that this company out of Florida is a scam and they will take your money. I've been out of money now with them for the past 9 months and I've lost 500.00 and will not get it back. That is why I took myself out of the program. I was not seeing any results and they don't send the paper work out to your creditors like they say they will do. I'm tired of being lied to and I don't care if Hess likes it or not. YOU ARE LIARS AND THEFTS!!! EDWARD IS A LIAR, MICHAEL IS TOO AND SO IS ADAM!! All hess kennedy people lie and I think that someone needs to put them in their place. I don't see how they sleep at night. How can this be right? Someone tell me. I put my trust in these stupid people and now I"m going to do my settling on my own. WHO NEEDS FRIENDS LIKE THIS? NOT ME ANYMORE SO KISS OFF HESS KENNEDY PEOPLE AND STOP STEALING MONEY FROM INNOCENT PEOPLE!! GOD HELP YOU!!!

Reading all this comments ...
Now I'm very scared!!!
I signed up with Hess Kennedy almost a year ago.They never send me any papers telling me the progress of my case.They never contact me(in any form).
What should I do?

GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!! Don't le them take any more of your money out of your account. I'm settling own my own and I hate the fact that I ever signed anything with them and I hate also that they are still in operations and I'd like to see them go under and not ever get back into business. Take my advice and get out and do the leg work on your debt yourself. Take it from someone who had too and learn the hard way to settle with these stupid debts that all of these credit card companies are making off of people who can barely make it from day to day!

Does anyone have any suggestions, I too signed up with them but had tried to cancel after only 3 days and actually spoke to a woman that siad it was cancelled but they still took the money out of my account. Any advice?

Keep calling them and demanding that they either issue you a refund by check, or deposit the money back into your acct. If you don't have any luck, file a complaint with the Florida BBB against them, as well as the Florida Attorney General's office as well as the Attorney General for your state.

Your employees said to refund to me. It was over a month. There is no refund or any a phone call.

How do you explain?

Mr. Shawn, How is he doing? Lazy.... or sleep...

Dear Edward,
Please advise as to your Florida State Bar number or any other state bar number. If you do not have one, please advise as to an actual employee of Hess Kennedy who has a license to practice law and provide relevant information. I find it quite interesting that your letters are signed by "Attorney For The Firm, Hess Kennedy Company", but no individual's name is given. Such signatures are ineffective in most states as they provide no evidence of authority of anyone to act on behalf of your company. Why not just have a real individual sign? Rather duplicitous if you ask me!

I just wanted to add an update regarding my bad experience with HK. I did finally receive a full refund of the money that I had paid to HK, check was received last week. I hope anyone who has had problems with this company continues to pursue getting your money refunded.

Congrats Tiffany, I remember you were going through a lot of troubles with this company. But finally, its good to see your money back.

Congratulations Tiffany! I just recently read your post about your problems with this company. I am glad that you got your money back from them.

A Hess Kennedy representative informed me the accounts would not be settled until adequate funds were in my trust account. After 6 months of enrollment and nothing happening, I contacted one of my creditors and settled the account for 50%... and they did not verify that I had the money. The creditor informed me I had 30 days to pay, nothing more. So my question to Edward is why does Hess Kennedy have $800+ of my hard earned money, but no accounts are settled to date? My starting balance on one credit card was $710. Why has Hess Kennedy not settled this account either? I would not recommend their "services" because there is no service. I received a summons in the mail from one creditor. I contacted Lisa at Hess Kennedy, who informed me someone would have more information in approximately one week. This was over 2 weeks ago and I have not heard anything, I have tried contacting them but to no avail.

I also spoke to Carlton at Hess Kennedy who readily became agitated when I asked too many questions. Excuse me for being an informed, involved consumer. I have left several messages for Lisa and have not received a call back. When I call back and inform the receptionist I need a person, not voicemail; I get someone else's voicemail. Voicemail is wonderful if a return call is actually made.
Furthermore, Edward, it is not appropriate for you to always blame the consumer- not everyone just ran up credit card debt for the sake of buying things we cannot afford. Unfortunately, life events sometimes influence our incomes thus affecting our ability to pay off debts incurred during more prosperous times.

I have since retained a private attorney to actually WORK for the money I am paying him. And for the record Edward, further action against Hess Kennedy will be taken.

I am not sure what to believe here but I know from experience with this company that they don't communicate with you...I have tried for 2 weeks to get a response from someone and I have got nothing! So now I am getting nervous beings I have over $1000 in a "trust" with this company. So i guess the next step is to file charges....I really was hoping this was the answer to setting my debts, not get me in worse than I was.

Having learned the hard way, I now know that a reputable company is not going to keep your money in a trust acct. You should be setting aside the funds that the settlement company determines you need each month, and then when you have adequate money, have a check issued to the creditor based upon the settlement that is agreed upon.

I've got a great idea...how about just PAYING back what you agreed to when you signed the contract? When you used that credit card and got what you wanted, you agreed to pay back the money for it. Now these companies urge you all to use them to get out of paying. Unbelievable! How do you guys sleep at night? You rack thousands in credit card debt (purchasing what you wanted) and then use scam artists like Hess Kennedy to get out of paying it back. It's the law of attraction people. If you are getting ripped off by these sharks, it's because you tried ripping off your creditors. What comes around goes around.

I actually agree with Coneerned Creditor, however the prolem lies with Creditors and especially Collectors that tack on excessive and sometine extortionist interests, charges, and fees out of greed, and in many casees in a vindictive manner, rahter than work witha consumer who has had prlems to work out arrangement sto pay back they money which the original creditor is legitimetly owed.

Concerned Creditor - I agree, people should pay their debts, but I also think that your question, "How do you people sleep at night?" was totally uncalled for. How do I sleep at night? Not very well, thank you. I haven't slept very well for a few years now, since my financial troubles started. I'm sure there are many people on here who aren't sleeping very well either.

Unexpected things happen and people find themselves in situations where they are unable to pay their debts, that's life, and whether it's right or not, it happens. It would be great to say that my debt problems are due to me going out and using credit to just buy things that I could not afford or did not need. I would have at least gotten some "things" out of it. Instead, medical bills and greedy doctors, hospitals and labs have contributed to my financial woes. Even with health insurance I'm still screwed.

So, don't assume that all people on here are deadbeats that are just looking for ways to get out of paying their debts, because that is not the case.

Post removed Personal attack prohibited Cajunbulldog

I told you I did not want your service. I fax you I did not want your service. I left messages and still you took money out of my checking account how is that going to help me. Real name removed.Cajunbulldog

Thanks Cajun - but I missed Debt Collector's attack, which I'm assuming was directed at my last post. Oh well, I'm sure it wasn't anything that hasn't been posted on here before by someone else, and nothing enlightening and useful.

Tiffany it was a attack on the board and members itself.There was so much profanity in it that I felt that a edit was useless.

Figures! Well, thanks for catching it.

Ok everyone wants to bash the debt collectors so im telling you im a debt collector, been doing it for 18 years, I am currently dealing with Kess and Kennedy on an account right now, the consumer has been putting in deposits of over 500.00 per month for the last 9 months, she has 3 accounts she placed with them to settle, they have not settled any of her accounts as up to today, i just got off the phone with her, she has plenty of money in her account there to settle the debt with us, but we havent even herd from hess kennedy and company to settle, she doesntknow why they are holding her money, they have been drawing interest off her account for the last 9 months? we deal with these so called debt nego. companies all the time. a majority of them dont end up helping the consumer at all, they stall out your creditors, they want to play the im disputing game just like they did about the interest in the above threads. they take your money put it in an account draw the interest off of your money and still not settle your debt. and i also charge you a retainer for their so called services, they call your creditors and offer low ball settlements of 30-40 percent and expect your creditors to take it. and if the creditor or debt collector refuses it because its not acceptable to the creditor they end up hangin up on you. more debt neg. companies get consumers sued rather than helping them because they refuse to make payment arrangements with the debt collector they will only offer a lump sum settlement of what you may have in your account, and if its not enough they tell you oh well and hang up again. then if that particular debt collectors company does sue accounts, or they refer it back to the client to sue the account its because the debt neg company refuses to make any other arrangements other than a low ball lump sum settlement. They will not make payment arrangements at all! then again your money stays in their account and they continue to draw interest off of all your money. and then you the consumer may end up getting sued. believe me the collector wants to settle, they get paid that way, so if they can low ball settle it they will, if they can, but the have parameters they have to stay within for their clients/creditors as well. sure there are some nasty bill collectors out there, but guess what, there are nasty people in every profession. i personally have helped so many consumers out of so many rough situations helping them resolve their debts. my advise to all of you is just call your creditors or the agency that handles your delinquent accounts and talk to them, if you dont like who your talking to ask for a manager, you can discuss your bill just as good if not better than some debt neg. company, and we wont even charge you a retainer fee or any fee for it like they do, you can make arrangements on your own. just remember no one is keeping you from sending in payments on your own, they will always get posted to your account.

Quote:

To the Hess Kennedy rep: that was incorrect information for the board. It's not possible to settle the acct for 20 or 30 cents on the dollar with "no negative consequences". Credit bureau reporting doesn't work that way. The bank would have to report "settled for less than the full amount" which would still affect new credit availability and pricing.
To everyone else, there are times when the settlement is the best option and it is certainly better for your credit than not paying at all. Also, it stops the collection calls. But, don't pay these fees to resolve your debts - work with your creditors or a non profit organization. They can do the same or more for you, at no cost.

debt settlement Complaints Lead to Search for 'Attorney'


A man named Edward T. Kennedy is listed as a name partner at the embattled Hess Kennedy law firm in Coral Springs, Fla., but no one with that name is licensed to practice law in Florida.
A Florida Bar complaint filed March 13 against Laura Hess, the Hess in Hess Kennedy, notes Florida lawyers are barred from forming partnerships with nonlawyers in a legal practice. The thrust of the complaint is that the law firm is running a "deceptive debt settlement scheme" that is long on fees and short on assistance.

The law firm and related companies are targets of hundreds of consumer complaints nationally, and the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida gave it a failing grade. No one has estimated the full scope of an alleged debt scheme, but in North Carolina alone, more than 220 residents claimed they paid Hess Kennedy more than $500,000.

State corporate records at various times list addresses for Kennedy in Coral Springs, New York and the Cayman Islands.

New York lawyer Edward T. Kennedy is a taxation attorney and accountant with a law firm in Manhattan. Asked Monday if he had any connection to the Coral Springs firm, Kennedy said, "No, not at all." But he said he was asked the same question by the West Virginia attorney general's office about two months ago.

A Chase Bank lawsuit filed in February against the law firm claims Kennedy may be Edward Cherry, who is listed in state corporate records as a business partner in Hess Kennedy and several affiliated companies.

The Bar joined the attorneys general of Florida, North Carolina and West Virginia, Chase Bank and Cherry's former employer in court against Hess Kennedy, its affiliates or its principals. Hess denied Kennedy and Cherry are the same person in a countersuit filed against the bank March 7, saying: "Edward T. Kennedy is a human being who is not Edward Cherry. Edward Kennedy resides in Brussels." No other information about Kennedy was provided.

But the existence or whereabouts of Kennedy may be the least of the problems facing Hess and Cherry. Hess, a Florida Bar member since 2000, is fighting the 10-count, 119-page complaint in her second run-in with the Bar. She was disciplined with a public reprimand in 2005 for drunken driving convictions. Cherry is a defendant in a pending Broward County civil suit claiming he embezzled at least $600,000 from the company he worked for just prior to joining the Hess Kennedy businesses. His attorney said Cherry committed no wrongdoing. Hess could not be reached for comment despite repeated requests via phone, e-mail, a message left in person at her Coral Springs office and through her attorneys. Cherry could not be reached for comment at the law firm or by phone.

The Florida Bar alleges Hess Kennedy's operation is "designed to extract upfront fees from financially strapped clients whether or not any useful services are performed" for them. Clients "rarely obtain debt settlements ... and end up in a far worse financial position" than before.

The Bar also claims:

Hess and her agents are running an illegal advance-fee scam.
She failed to provide clients with competent representation.
She charged excessive fees for her services and shared fees with nonlawyers.
The firm failed to place customer payments into trust or escrow accounts as promised in advertising and agreements or by sales agents as required by Bar regulations.
In her reply Monday to the Bar complaint, Hess denied operating any scheme and rejected allegations that her firm intentionally preyed upon unsophisticated clients to collect large legal fees. She conceded some of her client agreements specified funds would be placed in client escrow accounts for subsequent payment to creditors but acknowledged no such funds were maintained. In an earlier response to the Bar last October, she said funds collected were for legal fees and not to pay clients' creditors.

Hess attorneys Culver Smith of Fox Rothschild in West Palm Beach and Kevin Tynan of Richardson & Tynan in Tamarac filed for dismissal of the complaint. Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jack Cook has been appointed as the referee to hear the trial. No date has been set.

Tynan told the Bar last October that "Hess and her law firm are engaged in some very cutting-edge litigation in a very technical area of the law that is heavily regulated." While there have been some "growing pains" at the firm, he said there should be no charges against Hess because clients who complained had gotten refunds. The Bar complaint noted Hess Kennedy gave almost no refunds until the professional investigation began.

As for Cherry, he was sued in 2003 by his former employer, Internet Billing of Deerfield Beach, which claims he embezzled at least $600,000 days before he abruptly resigned from the firm.

The suit said Cherry was listed as Internet Billing's "in-house counsel" even though he is not licensed to practice law in Florida. The company claims Cherry revived and had total control over an administratively dissolved Florida company called Esquire Escrow and used his position at Internet Billing, known as iBill, to get fellow employees to funnel company funds to Esquire Escrow.

Three days before quitting iBill in February 2003, Cherry made a $500,000 withdrawal from Esquire Escrow. The withdrawal slip filed as an exhibit in the case said the money was transferred "to personal and children's accounts." Cherry also made tens of thousands of dollars in additional cash withdrawals of Esquire Escrow funds from money machines and from banks during 2001 and 2002, court documents showed.

Bank records included in the court file show Cherry withdrew at least $12,200 from Esquire Escrow accounts at ATM machines in May 2002. A company bank card was used for a $763 purchase at a Sunglass Hut the same month and $3,130 in charges at Fort Lauderdale's upscale Voodoo Lounge the next month.

In an Oct. 30, 2003, deposition, Cherry invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer any questions about what happened to the money moved from iBill to Esquire Escrow.

Boca Raton solo practitioner Charles Wender, who represents Cherry and who was present at the 2003 deposition, said Cherry's "position is that he is totally innocent and these are just wild allegations that they obviously can't prove."

Internet Billing attorney Anthony Carriuolo of Berger Singerman of Fort Lauderdale, who conducted the deposition, said documents show Cherry "was just siphoning off tons of money."