National IP Rights Center - Scott J. Fields - TrademarkMyName.com Total Rip off, conned into services that they wouldn't provide as promised Blue Bell Pennsylvania

I too had trouble with Scott J. Fields; but he returned my money.

Nevertheless, I just received a letter today claiming that Mr. Fields passed away on April 23, 2007.

Be good to people because you never know when it will be your time to go and no amount of money will ever make it better. Enjoy your life now.

B. David Mehmet

Scott and his law firm have made good on the entire amount, agreed to refund it all, and I would like to retract my comments where I said that I was conned, and ripped off. I was agitated at the time, and simply reacting with haste. I probably over-reacted to the whole situation.

I did agree to the fee, which was not the issue. I was simply dissatisfied as to the time it took, and the fact that it seemed they were too busy to help me. I was -not- conned, and was -not- ripped off.

Scott and his firm did do a very fine job on the trademark work they did for me previously, and I would highly recommend him and his firm if you are looking for a good trademark or patent attorney to represent you.

I believe that they were extemely busy at the time, and anyone can make a mistake. Scott has assured me, and I'm confident that what may have happened with me will be corrected in the future, and seeing that Scott and his firm have successfully handled more trademark & patent filings than probably any other firm in the country, they are no doubt satisfying all of their customers or they wouldn't be where they are today. My LLC may have been out of the ordinary, since I'm sure they had never filed for an LLC for someone as far away as I live from their office in Pennsylvania.

There was simply a lack of communication here, and I would recommend that you do not hesitate to do business with Scott and his company. I'm sure he and his company will do an excellent job for you, especially in the areas of trademarks and patents. He has a great reputation, and this incident should not discourage you from working with him.

He was a good man to apologize for the problem, and he has made good on it as promised.

My biggest issue with this site is that you don't give the business owner a fair chance to rebut.

The title of my rebuttal. "Questionable Business Idea-Blame the Lawyer" should be posted in the banner instead of the "Consumer Advice" . My position is that the client in question made a decision that he didn't want to go forward with his business because it wasn't a good or viable idea and he used me as an excuse.

I have come forward, explained my position and given my full name. The title of my rebuttal should be posted as prominently as the complaint.

I actually agree with Scott on this point, and the money charged for doing the LLC was never an issue for me. A filing done in a timely manner would have been worth it.

I've already made my points clear as to what I was dissatisfied with, so I'll leave it at that.

Bill

I don't know what services you are providing by "ordering and compling a minute book", but you can order quality corporate minute books and LLC books for less than $80. In most cases, that price includes boilerplate bylaws or an LLC operating agreement. And application for the employer ID number and be done online in less than 5 minutes.

I provide this same types of services for my clients. If you were handling these services personaly, it shouldn't have taken you more than 1 hour and most of this could be delegated to staff so you could bill other clients. After deducting no moe than $300 in expenses, you basically charged $300 an hour. Is $300 an hourly a reasonable fee for this type of service? In my opinion, no.

I disagree that $600 is an unreasonable charge to set up an LLC.

Our service involves more than merely filing a state form.

We order and compile a minute book, obtain an EIN for the client and draft an ininital operating Agreement.

The client stopped the entire process before we could complete our work.

Many law firms charge over $1000.00 for this service.

Scott J. Fields

I disagree that $600 is an unreasonable charge to set up an LLC.

Our service involves more than merely filing a state form.

We order and compile a minute book, obtain an EIN for the client and draft an ininital operating Agreement.

The client stopped the entire process before we could complete our work.

Many law firms charge over $1000.00 for this service.

Scott J. Fields

I disagree that $600 is an unreasonable charge to set up an LLC.

Our service involves more than merely filing a state form.

We order and compile a minute book, obtain an EIN for the client and draft an ininital operating Agreement.

The client stopped the entire process before we could complete our work.

Many law firms charge over $1000.00 for this service.

Scott J. Fields

After reading the attorney's reply and the original authors rebuttal, I have comments for both of them.

To the original author: you overreacted somewhat. In the end, your LLC was formed for the agreed price. It does appear that you were treated rudely, but that is not reason to complete give up on your LLC just because your attorney perform the services in a timely fashion.

To the attorney: You admittedly provided slow service, but I think you grossly overcharged this person if all you for him was file an application to form an LLC.

I did a little checking with the Washington Secretary of State. The filing fee to start an LLC is $175 for normal processing and you can pay an extra $20 for "expedited" processing (i.e. 24 hour turn around). It is a one-page form you download for free. Unless the attorney agreed to provide other services, he collected $425 for filling out a one page form. If that is true, I find tha to be outrageous.

If you are going to form a corporation or an LLC, don't use an online service. Establish a relationship with local attorney admitted to practice in your state. Yes it is more epxensive, but there is a lot of legal planning that you just cannot get from a web site.

In my state, it is usally more expensive to do business as an LLC. I advise most of my client to form an S corporation rather than an LLC. Issues like that should be discussed with a tax professional or an attorney, not some out-of-state website.

First of all, I was more than patient throughout the whole situation, considering that I was originally told the process would only take a couple of weeks.

After having to wait over 2.5 months to get the process completed, of course you would expect that the simple correction could have been done right away, but I guess once they've made you wait 4-5 times longer than expected they figured they could make me wait an additional 30 more days, and didn't seem to care about my situation, or the fact that my whole plan to file my business with the local city govt was being held up because I still hadn't gotten the LLC filed. This was extremely frustrating.

After I contacted Scott Fields and told him we had 30 days to correct the problem, I got further clarification from the state as to the actual deadline, I called & emailed back to clarify the situation and explain that the deadline was 30 days from the letter's date, and NOT 30 days from when I told him. We had less than 2.5 weeks from when I told him it needed to be corrected.

His office did NOTHING, and would not even acknowledge the fact that the deadline was sooner than what he orginally believed. He also did nothing for 2 weeks, when the correction could have been done in less than 2 minutes.

After being so fed up with being ignored for so long, I decided that I didn't want to start my own business if dealing with an attorney that was supposed to be on my side would treat me with such further disregard, especially after making me wait over 2 months for a process that could have taken 2 weeks or less. Being ignored for 2 additional weeks was just icing on the cake.

Less than 4 business days from the deadline of when the paperwork was due, I -still- had not heard anything from them, they did not correct the situation as promised, so I called Mr Fields and told him to forget about the whole thing.

When he realized that he had dropped the ball again, he quickly reviewed what had to be done and had one of his assistants quickly scramble & email me and tell me that all I needed to do was add in my own information as the executor of the document, and send it in.

WHY COULDN'T THIS -SIMPLE- Correction have been explained right away?

I wonder why, after having to wait SO LONG, that I would be ignored for over 2 more weeks when I clearly, and politely tried to inform them of the deadline... One would think that they would try to provide good customer service, and when an error is made in the original documentation that they should go out of their way to get the problem fixed as soon as possible, or AT LEAST acknowledge when the client informs them of the actual deadline.... Instead I was ignored until I told them to forget about the whole thing, and that I have had it up to my ears.

The LLC WAS NOT setup as requested. I asked how long it would take, and he said a couple of weeks at the most. It was well over 2 months, and if he thinks that kind of service is "As requested", he seems to have no concept of customer service in my opinion.

Then, I emailed him again a couple of weeks after he "said" he would give me a refund, but I was ignored until I complained with another email. Then, he said via email that I would get a refund "today".... It didn't happen that day, or that week, and I emailed him again after the next week or so. I was ignored -again-, and in my opinion he did not refund the money until I filed this ripoff report, and it obviously it came to his attention.... It surely looks to me like he put more effort into filing his rebuttal on this website than he did getting my problem solved. Since he didn't perform as promised, I should have received all of my money back, especially after all of the aggravation I had to go through. I will settle for the filing fee though, since it is better than nothing. I just hope other people don't get treated like this in the future, and that they learn from this. Overall I think they have the potential to be a good law firm, once they realize that people don't want to be ignored, especially after having to wait 4 times longer than promised for a service that could have been done in about a week or so. I wouldn't have even filed the ripoff report at all IF I had been treated with a little bit of courtesy.... I know that my emails were being read, because I used an email notification service. He could have simply responded to me with an answer as to when the refund would be made, but he didn't. It appeared to me like I would not get the refund as promised.

I'm sorry that it had to turn out this way, but I was more than patient.

Maybe they'll change their ways... I didn't want to even have to resort to using the ripoff report, but after being constantly ignored I felt like I had no choice.

Thanks Ripoff Report!!!! I appreciate your help.

I am the CEO of the National IP Rights Center. As an attorney, it is difficult to respond to this type of allegation without breaching privilege, but I will respond to the those points raised publicly by the individual in question.

It is correct that we took longer than expected
to file the LLC. It is also correct that the client in question had reserved the name, thus insuring its availability. We had previously filed for a federal trademark registration for the client.

The client paid us $600. We performed our services, and paid a $175 government fee. The LLC was set up as requested. As is often the case, the state came back for a clarification of information and gave us 30 days to respond. We docketed the item for action.

The client then contacted us and expected us to essentially drop all other matters and immediately deal with this administrative matter. I assured the client we would handle the matter and that it was docketed for action.

We subsequently received a lengthy email from the client advising us that he no longer wished to conduct his business and essentially used his inability to "trust lawyers" as his pretext.

I called the client and in my conversation it became clear to me the client had determined that the business was not viable and/or that he did not wish to proceed with the business and that he was using "bad lawyers" as a pretext to drop the project. We recently received a refund of $175 from the state and this has been credited back to the client.

Scott Fields, CEO
National IP Rights Center, LLC

I am the CEO of the National IP Rights Center. As an attorney, it is difficult to respond to this type of allegation without breaching privilege, but I will respond to the those points raised publicly by the individual in question.

It is correct that we took longer than expected
to file the LLC. It is also correct that the client in question had reserved the name, thus insuring its availability. We had previously filed for a federal trademark registration for the client.

The client paid us $600. We performed our services, and paid a $175 government fee. The LLC was set up as requested. As is often the case, the state came back for a clarification of information and gave us 30 days to respond. We docketed the item for action.

The client then contacted us and expected us to essentially drop all other matters and immediately deal with this administrative matter. I assured the client we would handle the matter and that it was docketed for action.

We subsequently received a lengthy email from the client advising us that he no longer wished to conduct his business and essentially used his inability to "trust lawyers" as his pretext.

I called the client and in my conversation it became clear to me the client had determined that the business was not viable and/or that he did not wish to proceed with the business and that he was using "bad lawyers" as a pretext to drop the project. We recently received a refund of $175 from the state and this has been credited back to the client.

Scott Fields, CEO
National IP Rights Center, LLC

I am the CEO of the National IP Rights Center. As an attorney, it is difficult to respond to this type of allegation without breaching privilege, but I will respond to the those points raised publicly by the individual in question.

It is correct that we took longer than expected
to file the LLC. It is also correct that the client in question had reserved the name, thus insuring its availability. We had previously filed for a federal trademark registration for the client.

The client paid us $600. We performed our services, and paid a $175 government fee. The LLC was set up as requested. As is often the case, the state came back for a clarification of information and gave us 30 days to respond. We docketed the item for action.

The client then contacted us and expected us to essentially drop all other matters and immediately deal with this administrative matter. I assured the client we would handle the matter and that it was docketed for action.

We subsequently received a lengthy email from the client advising us that he no longer wished to conduct his business and essentially used his inability to "trust lawyers" as his pretext.

I called the client and in my conversation it became clear to me the client had determined that the business was not viable and/or that he did not wish to proceed with the business and that he was using "bad lawyers" as a pretext to drop the project. We recently received a refund of $175 from the state and this has been credited back to the client.

Scott Fields, CEO
National IP Rights Center, LLC

I am the CEO of the National IP Rights Center. As an attorney, it is difficult to respond to this type of allegation without breaching privilege, but I will respond to the those points raised publicly by the individual in question.

It is correct that we took longer than expected
to file the LLC. It is also correct that the client in question had reserved the name, thus insuring its availability. We had previously filed for a federal trademark registration for the client.

The client paid us $600. We performed our services, and paid a $175 government fee. The LLC was set up as requested. As is often the case, the state came back for a clarification of information and gave us 30 days to respond. We docketed the item for action.

The client then contacted us and expected us to essentially drop all other matters and immediately deal with this administrative matter. I assured the client we would handle the matter and that it was docketed for action.

We subsequently received a lengthy email from the client advising us that he no longer wished to conduct his business and essentially used his inability to "trust lawyers" as his pretext.

I called the client and in my conversation it became clear to me the client had determined that the business was not viable and/or that he did not wish to proceed with the business and that he was using "bad lawyers" as a pretext to drop the project. We recently received a refund of $175 from the state and this has been credited back to the client.

Scott Fields, CEO
National IP Rights Center, LLC

Getting legal advice over the Internet is always risky. Legal websites can potentially contain a lot of good information, but it is usually best to be a local attorney.

I was initially skeptical about this report because you apparently contracted for services that are not posted on the web site you complain of. For future reference, I again suggest doing business only with an attorney in your state. Forming a business and choosing the right business entity (i.e. LLC, c corp, s corp, etc.) often requires someone with knowledge in several areas such as taxes, securities and other areas.

If what you say is true, you were treated rudely and unprofessionally. The attorney did not provide proper service, but the amount of any credit or refund will depend on what services he agreed to provide vs. what he actually did. There is often a lot of "behind the scenes" work in forming a new business that goes beyond filling out a couple of state forms.

I would urge you to consider 3 options;

(1) Complain to the State Bar where this attorney is located: they may do nothing, but it might be his attention

(2) Consider filing a small claims lawsuit in your state: even if you would not be able collect because he is in a different state, it might result in payment. Right now, he has no incentive to pay you; and

3) File a complaing with the Better Business Bureau: I know the owners of this web site have a low opinion of the BBB, but it has worked for some of my clients. In this case, the web site you are complaining about is a BBB member and participant in the BBB "Online Reliability" program, so you complaint might get more attention.

Good luck!