I have been excessively overbilled by Brian Karpf and the Young, Berman, Karpf & Gonzalez, PA law firm. This is my opinion and the opinion of several other attorneys who cannot believe I have been charged over $230,000 plus based on this case and what has gone on. My bills are triple my husband's bills, and his attorney charges significantly more per hour. I was charged $58,000 for just 35 days. I feel I have been ripped off. I trusted them during a very difficult time and I feel they have mishandled my case, misled me and churned my divorce for their own financial gain.
I am mother of 3 young children and I told them over and over to preserve the money I had left. They showed no regard for helping me save money and even raised their hourly rates in the middle of the case. Brian Karpf raised his rate from $325 to $395 per hour, a 21% increase. I have gotten multiple legal opinions from attorneys on their billing and none of them can believe it. It just doesn’t add up. There have been no depositions and we have hardly been to court yet I have been charged almost a quarter of a million dollars! That is a lot of money and was almost all of the money I have for my children and I to live.
Brian Karpf also threatened to walk out in the middle of a settlement conference if I did not pay on the spot. While we were in the middle of focusing on settlement negotiations, he said he would not go any further. This is after I had paid him well over $100,000 at this point but he still forced me to pay immediately. When he left the room I sent an email paying a portion of the bill ($10,000) and told him I had questions on the rest of the charges and would pay it later once we had time to go over it. But he would not accept that so I was forced to pay the remaining $6,000. This was a horrible feeling and I felt as if I was being taken advantage of by someone who was supposed to be helping me. He knew how much I had per my financial affidavit and I think he wanted to make sure he got all the money he could and then withdraw when there was no money left. He threatened to withdraw multiple times as a bully tactic to get me to pay or when I did not agree with him. One occasion was a conference call with accountants that was going to cost me $1800 per hour. This call was very expensive and when I questioned a more economical way to do it they threatened to withdraw again. The same was true when he billed me for 78 hours in 1 month and I told him many times I did not agree with the bill and asked how they could be so high.
In just one month alone during settlement Brian charged me 78 hours, which is nearly 2 weeks of 8 hours per day just on my case. I told him that seemed so high and disagreed with the bill. He told me if I didn’t pay immediately he would withdraw and he threatened me that I would need to start all over again because he was not going to give me the MSA he had been working on. He was very defensive about the amount of his bills anytime I questioned him on it. He picked and chose which emails to send me. He would say one thing on the phone and then "memorialize" another altogether in an email, and then say their files are well documented.
Another big problem (I have a lot of them but I will only highlight a few) they have a large escrow check as well as other checks, which my husband’s attorney explicitly asked Brian to deposit into his escrow account so that the large check and others would not go stale. Brian never did it and now claims he has all the other checks except this one big one.
Brian Karpf brought his father Mitch Karpf multiple times to conferences resulting in a huge bill and each of them charged me hours for travel time while they billed me a full day. Recently for a short court hearing Brian Karpf brought Andrew Berman to court with him so that he could bill twice as much for this basic motion calendar. I am sure I will be charged travel time for both of them as well. This was a simple matter that should not have required two attorneys.
I feel that they acted unethically on many occasions and tried to keep the case going by stirring things up. On one occasion he called the third party's attorney to bad mouth my husband specifically saying nasty things to make the thrid party defendent angry and upset which then caused problems for me. In my opinion Brian did this for no good reason but to stir up the case make it harder to settle and keep the billing going. They tried to derail our settlement and reconciliation efforts many times while working on the MSA and in mediation including telling me it was a waste of money to narrow the issues before mediation.
There were many pressing issues especially in the beginning that were ignored and minimized. I feel there is a lack of confidentiality with things they chose to tell opposing counsel. The Karpfs discussed confidential details of other client’s cases and an agreement for a very well known prominent Ft. Lauderdale business man and his daughter’s prenuptial agreement. I will leave his name out not to hurt his reputation. For over 10 minutes they discussed intimate details with the mediator about the agreement for this businessman’s daughter while I was paying over $1000 per hour when they were supposed to be working on my case.
I have sent multiple emailed requests for detailed billing to get a breakdown of their invoices and charges. They have not sent them. I have asked multiple times for detailed phone charges. They have not sent them. On a conference call Mitch Karpf asked me how much money I had left and Brian Karpf spoke up and said that’s not right you have more money than that. To me that further shows how he was calculating how much money I have. It’s true what they say about attorneys, they will stop when the money is gone. I have since learned that Young, Berman, Karpf & Gonzalez, P.A. 's reputation on the street is that they are heavy billers. They are known for that. Many family law attorneys have told me that. I wish I had known that before I hired them.
I trusted them completely to guide me through a very difficult time. I trusted and believed what they said and the advice they gave me. Instead I believe I was taken advantage of by the Karpfs for their own benefit and it has caused great harm to me and my young children. Emotional stress, financial stress and my health has been harmed. My case is no further along than when we started. I feel misled, deceived, and betrayed by the very people hired to help me and my family. I don't think I am the first person this has happened to. I am filing a complaint with the Florida Bar and www.avvo.com . I do not wish this on anyone. It is important to share my experience so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
Young, Berman, Karpf & Gonzalez, P.A. Reviews
I have been excessively overbilled by Brian Karpf and the Young, Berman, Karpf & Gonzalez, PA law firm. This is my opinion and the opinion of several other attorneys who cannot believe I have been charged over $230,000 plus based on this case and what has gone on. My bills are triple my husband's bills, and his attorney charges significantly more per hour. I was charged $58,000 for just 35 days. I feel I have been ripped off. I trusted them during a very difficult time and I feel they have mishandled my case, misled me and churned my divorce for their own financial gain.
I am mother of 3 young children and I told them over and over to preserve the money I had left. They showed no regard for helping me save money and even raised their hourly rates in the middle of the case. Brian Karpf raised his rate from $325 to $395 per hour, a 21% increase. I have gotten multiple legal opinions from attorneys on their billing and none of them can believe it. It just doesn’t add up. There have been no depositions and we have hardly been to court yet I have been charged almost a quarter of a million dollars! That is a lot of money and was almost all of the money I have for my children and I to live.
Brian Karpf also threatened to walk out in the middle of a settlement conference if I did not pay on the spot. While we were in the middle of focusing on settlement negotiations, he said he would not go any further. This is after I had paid him well over $100,000 at this point but he still forced me to pay immediately. When he left the room I sent an email paying a portion of the bill ($10,000) and told him I had questions on the rest of the charges and would pay it later once we had time to go over it. But he would not accept that so I was forced to pay the remaining $6,000. This was a horrible feeling and I felt as if I was being taken advantage of by someone who was supposed to be helping me. He knew how much I had per my financial affidavit and I think he wanted to make sure he got all the money he could and then withdraw when there was no money left. He threatened to withdraw multiple times as a bully tactic to get me to pay or when I did not agree with him. One occasion was a conference call with accountants that was going to cost me $1800 per hour. This call was very expensive and when I questioned a more economical way to do it they threatened to withdraw again. The same was true when he billed me for 78 hours in 1 month and I told him many times I did not agree with the bill and asked how they could be so high.
In just one month alone during settlement Brian charged me 78 hours, which is nearly 2 weeks of 8 hours per day just on my case. I told him that seemed so high and disagreed with the bill. He told me if I didn’t pay immediately he would withdraw and he threatened me that I would need to start all over again because he was not going to give me the MSA he had been working on. He was very defensive about the amount of his bills anytime I questioned him on it. He picked and chose which emails to send me. He would say one thing on the phone and then "memorialize" another altogether in an email, and then say their files are well documented.
Another big problem (I have a lot of them but I will only highlight a few) they have a large escrow check as well as other checks, which my husband’s attorney explicitly asked Brian to deposit into his escrow account so that the large check and others would not go stale. Brian never did it and now claims he has all the other checks except this one big one.
Brian Karpf brought his father Mitch Karpf multiple times to conferences resulting in a huge bill and each of them charged me hours for travel time while they billed me a full day. Recently for a short court hearing Brian Karpf brought Andrew Berman to court with him so that he could bill twice as much for this basic motion calendar. I am sure I will be charged travel time for both of them as well. This was a simple matter that should not have required two attorneys.
I feel that they acted unethically on many occasions and tried to keep the case going by stirring things up. On one occasion he called the third party's attorney to bad mouth my husband specifically saying nasty things to make the thrid party defendent angry and upset which then caused problems for me. In my opinion Brian did this for no good reason but to stir up the case make it harder to settle and keep the billing going. They tried to derail our settlement and reconciliation efforts many times while working on the MSA and in mediation including telling me it was a waste of money to narrow the issues before mediation.
There were many pressing issues especially in the beginning that were ignored and minimized. I feel there is a lack of confidentiality with things they chose to tell opposing counsel. The Karpfs discussed confidential details of other client’s cases and an agreement for a very well known prominent Ft. Lauderdale business man and his daughter’s prenuptial agreement. I will leave his name out not to hurt his reputation. For over 10 minutes they discussed intimate details with the mediator about the agreement for this businessman’s daughter while I was paying over $1000 per hour when they were supposed to be working on my case.
I have sent multiple emailed requests for detailed billing to get a breakdown of their invoices and charges. They have not sent them. I have asked multiple times for detailed phone charges. They have not sent them. On a conference call Mitch Karpf asked me how much money I had left and Brian Karpf spoke up and said that’s not right you have more money than that. To me that further shows how he was calculating how much money I have. It’s true what they say about attorneys, they will stop when the money is gone. I have since learned that Young, Berman, Karpf & Gonzalez, P.A. 's reputation on the street is that they are heavy billers. They are known for that. Many family law attorneys have told me that. I wish I had known that before I hired them.
I trusted them completely to guide me through a very difficult time. I trusted and believed what they said and the advice they gave me. Instead I believe I was taken advantage of by the Karpfs for their own benefit and it has caused great harm to me and my young children. Emotional stress, financial stress and my health has been harmed. My case is no further along than when we started. I feel misled, deceived, and betrayed by the very people hired to help me and my family. I don't think I am the first person this has happened to. I am filing a complaint with the Florida Bar and www.avvo.com . I do not wish this on anyone. It is important to share my experience so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.