2 /5 CG CISCY: I turned to the Blake Law group to assist with the affairs of a deceased relative. The hourly rate for this firm is fairly high, but I figured that meant they would be efficient and keep the billable hours to a reasonable amount. That was not the case.
I started to be suspicious of Mr. Blakes work after I was provided a document to review and it included information from a previous client. Even though Mr. Blake charged me as though he drafted a new document, it was apparent he just made a few edits to a draft he already had available. I was charged a few grand for something that was likely worked on for minutes. I suspect he did this with everything I paid for, make edits to recycled documents and charge a fortune.
Also, Mr. Blake will charge a full billable hour for any email you send him, no matter how short, and he will also charge for sending a response back simply acknowledging he received the email. Another clever trick of his, is to bait a client into communicating with him unnecessarily in order to increase his billable hours. For example, hell provide a document for review and ask for input, but hell charge for reading your input and if an error is shared, like the ones mentioned above, hell charge to fix them. So its almost like this was intentional. I was charged to proof read his work and he charges to correct his own mistakes. Truly an amazing system.
All in all, I had to move on from Mr. Blakes services because his fees were becoming too much. His fees were on track to exceed 50% of the total estate value. Something that shouldnt be allowed, especially in the case of modest estates. He may know what he is doing, but be warned, you will overpay for his services.