In explaining why four South Florida attorneys were suspended by the state Supreme Court last month, you’d run across an attempted overbilling of $100,000, a $2 million bank account and $40,000 of possibly misappropriated funds.
In alphabetical order….
Curtis Alva, West Palm Beach
According to the referee’s report, Daniel McCool, president of car paint repair company Dr. ColorChip, hired West Palm Beach’s Curtis Alva (admitted to the Florida Bar in 1999) in September 2016 to handle a company dispute.
Dr. ColorChip would pay $400 per hour for Alva’s time, $100 per hour for paralegal time and, If litigation was required, a $25,000 monthly retainer due within 10 days of billing. After 10 days, that retainer would be applied to unpaid invoices. The unapplied retainer would be refunded after Alva finished his work for Dr. ColorChip. All changes to this agreement had to be in writing and signed by both sides.
All went well until the December 2017 invoice that Alva sent on Jan. 9, 2018, billing $25,040 for 66.8 hours of work. McCool emailed Alva on Feb. 5, 2018, that Dr. ColorChip needed to review the bill. McCool told an employee to review it. The employee emailed seven questions about the December 2017 invoice to Alva on Feb. 16, then sent a followup email on Feb. 21 when she didn’t get an answer.