Patricia Andrew has an idea that could be of interest to anyone who has felt frustrated after attempting to communicate with a lawyer.
She has billed a Chicago law firm for the time and effort it took her to clear up a misdirected collections claim.
Andrew is a busy interior decorator and owner of Professional Design Services, a small Schaumburg-based interior-design firm.
Her problem began last fall when she received a summons to appear in court and reveal her assets. It was her first notice that a $2,951 judgment had been entered against her four months earlier for a debt she didn’t owe. The real debtor, she discovered, was an upholstery firm with a similar name in Du Page County.
The law firm that filed the claim was Brusso & Associates, one of the city’s busiest in the field of debt collection.
“We have a large volume of cases,” acknowledged Charles N. Brusso. “We get a lot of garbage coming in.”
Andrew made several phone calls to Brusso’s firm in an effort to correct the problem. “My credit is important to me,” she said.
Brusso said he tried to assure her the judgment would be removed, but she wasn’t persuaded.
Instead, Andrew went to court and saw attorney John M. Galich, a member of Brusso’s firm. “He demanded, `What are you going to do about what you owe?’ ” she said. “At that point I lost it. I told him, `I am billing you for my time.’ “
She sent the firm an invoice for $294. That got her a belated letter of apology from Galich, though no money. He blamed the error on a client, but added: “There is no legal obligation . . . for the payment of your invoice.”
Brusso said Andrew didn’t have to go to court to resolve the matter.
“I find this all very ironic,” she said. “Here we have a collection attorney who won’t pay his bill.”
DELINQUENT LAWYERS
It’s that time of year when procrastinating lawyers scramble for their checkbooks-or wish they had sent that check sooner-as they learn they are no longer licensed to practice law in Illinois.
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The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission has removed from its rolls about 1,500 lawyers who have failed to pay annual license fees due Jan. 1. The fee is $70 for new attorneys and $140 for most others.
The list of delinquents Monday morning included Susan Sher, Chicago’s corporation counsel-designate; Raymond L. Heise, Oak Park village attorney; and Joseph A. Morris, president and general counsel of the Lincoln Legal Foundation and the lawyer who represented Cook County Board members opposed to restoring abortion services at Cook County Hospital.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department said Sher put a check in the mail last week. Heise said he also mailed his check last week. Morris was out of the country and unavailable for comment. Reinstatement is automatic once the registration fee is paid.
– DALEY MOVES. William Daley, who has worn hats as president of Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, brother of and adviser to Mayor Richard Daley and Illinois campaign chairman for President Clinton, is stepping down as bank president and returning to Chicago-based legal giant Mayer, Brown & Platt as a senior partner.
Daley, who has been president of the bank since 1989, will remain on its board.
“It was time to move on,” said Daley, who added that his experience as bank president will give him unique insights when he resumes his corporate legal practice.
– FRED’S FOND FAREWELL. Soon-to-be former U.S. Atty. Fred Foreman took time out from his busy schedule this month to send Chicago-area journalists-in postage-paid Department of Justice envelopes marked “Official Business. Penalty for Private Use $300”-a packet of information highlighting his successes in office.
Included in the packet were a two-page letter thanking the news media, an eight-page “overview of my accomplishments” and an invitation to his “testimonial” dinner Friday. Among the accomplishments listed were the convictions of El Rukn street-gang members, though there was no mention of the allegations of misconduct that haunt the prosecution.
“But what will often be remembered by many as Mr. Foreman’s most significant achievement,” reads the overview, “was the relocation of the office from the 14th and 15th floors of the Dirksen Federal Building to the 3rd, 4th, 8th and 12th floors of the building.”
Foreman said the mailing was authorized by higher-ups. At a meeting Monday of the Tribune’s editorial board, he also said the mob has pretty much been wiped out in Illinois and court corruption cleaned up in Cook County.