LA Attorney Jacob Emrani Subject of Proposed Class Action Lawsuit

A popular personal injury firm, The Law Offices of Jacob Emrani, that allegedly charged clients a predatory fee arrangement has been sued in LA Superior Court.

The Daily Journal reported that Jacob Emrani is accused in a proposed class action lawsuit of assessing a flat administrative fee and separate administrative fee to recover losses after a client’s termination.

Download Complaint HERE – Courtesy of Trellis Law

“An admin fee sounds to me like nothing more than charging for overhead, the common costs of doing business, as opposed to something specific to representing a particular client, and in my opinion, that’s unethical,” said David Helbraun, a plaintiff’s legal malpractice lawyer. “It’s similar to a departure fee, which doesn’t seem fair to me.”

Emrani’s law firm was allegedly a legal intake mill, in which after signing a client, their case would be delayed until they wanted to move on to another law firm. That’s when the firm allegedly charged the two admin fees.

“If a law firm has a large number of clients, possibly hundreds, cases may not get timely and properly prosecuted,” Helbraun told OrangeCountyLawyers.com. “They get lost in the shuffle. Such a firm probably focuses on the cases that have large damages and easier liability.”

The money Emrani charged departing clients was allegedly used to offset the firm’s monthly advertising budget. The law firm, whose logo is ‘Call Jacob,’ advertised on YouTube, radio and street billboards.

A Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile shows that the firm has been in operation 27 years and has had seven complaints in the last three years along with six complaints closed in the last 12 months.

A May 2, 2022 BBB complaint alleges that one client was never briefed on their case and was left waiting like a ‘chump.’

“An attorney should be communicating with his client and certainly when the client is trying to contact the attorney to find out what’s going on and the attorney doesn’t communicate, that’s a breach of ethics and the client is in their right to terminate the representation and move on if they want to do that,” Helbraun said in an interview.

Mechaly v Emrani could lead to a state bar disciplinary proceeding but Helbraun isn’t so sure the law is clear enough to warrant a suspension. “It’s not a disbarring offense in my opinion,” he said. “It may depend on how widespread the practice is.”

Marc Mechaly, who became an Emrani client after a 2015 auto accident, claims in the lawsuit that Emrani allowed his case to languish for some two years without ever serving the defendants and was also told by Emrani to fabricate the amount of his loss-of-earnings claim.

Emrani is represented by Michael Feenberg whose area of practice includes professional liability defense.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Alex Guerrero of Law Office of Alex D. Guerrero, who filed the lawsuit on Jan. 2, alleges fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of contract, and numerous violations of the California Rules of Professional Conduct.

Neither Feenberg nor Guerrero responded to requests for comment.

“There is a gray line in the current understanding of what sorts of costs are permissible to charge to a client,” Helbraun added. “There are overhead costs like an assistant’s salary, and there are specific costs attributable to the specific litigation, such as depositions or filing fees. This case could clarify what an administrative fee possibly could be.”