Law Offices of Richard A. Brennan - Can you rely on them?

No, I am not a fool thank you! The only fool is someone whose credit is horrible and yet still insists on paying the balance when they could save 1/2 or more. If you think about, Brennan's office is almost providing a public service. Yes, they're trying to make money, but their motives are certainly more pure than the credit card companies who prey upon all of you. I truly truly hope that those of you who are raising so much hell on here raised that much hell when your interest went from that introductory 1.9% to the normal 28%. I hope you fought the creditors as much as you seem willing to fight here. Whats that? You did? and they told you to read your contract? and when you did you realized that you should have read it before you signed your life away to them? Wow...But its still their fault, right?

Hell yeah it is! Its anyones fault but mine that I'm in this mess! Git r dun!

I agree with typical. I only missed one payment, and they jacked my rates up! It was only one payment! After that the rest of my creditors jacked my interest up too! When I called to find out why they told me that it was in my contract that if I defualt on another card that they had the right to jack my rates up too. I told them that was bs and demanded to know where it was. I looked in my contract and sure enough there it was. Still, I think thats a load of crap. They never should have given me these cards.

Well, I too was a CrediCure client who since had been sending monies to The Law Offices of Richard A. Brennan. I actually spoke to Mr. Brennan exactly 5 weeks ago about this situation. Mr. Brennan assured me that he would turn over my information to his auditors THAT DAY and I would be hearing something from them. Well, 5 weeks later and of course I have heard nothing! I always give the benefit of the doubt. I'm really starting to side with all the other comments I've heard here, especially since I spoke to Mr. Brennan and see absolutely nothing that would lead me to belive that anything he said he would do has actually been done. Mr. Brennan, you have my name, address, and phone because I gave it to you 5 weeks ago. Feel free to call and discuss.

FYI - lawsuit is still active. In addition to the information provided above, the following has occurred:


04/25/2007 Hearing Notice
04/24/2007 Motion for Extension of Time to Respond to Pls' Class Action Complaint
05/01/2007 Notice of Service of Discovery
05/02/2007 Motion for Extension of Time to Respond to Plts' Motion to Certify Class Action

Court Scheduling Information
Event Type: Hearing
Event Date: 07/18/2007 Event Time:09:00 AM

Hello all. I recently signed up for debt consolidation and was sent sent to the Law offices of Richard A Brennan for services. I thought everything was fine until I did some research! Now I don't know what to do. I agreed over the phone CCCoA to use debt consolidation and gave them my banking info. They are suppose to debit my bank for $250 at the end of the month. But I have not signed the paperwork they sent me yet. But I want out as soon as possible. Is there anything I can do to avoid having any money taken out of my account???? Please help!

If Brennan is involved in all these lawsuits... how is he able to take on new clients while he has so many poorly satisfied clients???

New User - CLOSE YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT. As long as they have that information, they will try to debit the account. This was the only way that I was able to avoid having the Law Offices of R Brennan take any additional money from my account after I realized that they were not going to follow through with their end of the agreement.

Is the first payment justifiable? CCCA tells me that they have to debit one payment for all their work so far. Is that justifiable? If I close my bank account and block them from getting that money, am I breaking any laws or doing something illegal?

The typical set up fee is $10. Unless you are receiving extensive and personal money coaching to justify a larger fee, there is no need for them to take out $250. Remember, you have not signed any contract with them yet. Double check for statements that allow for you to cancel the "services" without any penalties, then you can be confident that you don't have anything to worry about. If you want to find a legitimate credit counseling agency, search for one that is affiliated with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling or the Association of Independent consumer credit counseling Agencies.

New user/guest
I was just put through the same thing. I received my contract yesterday and looked through it. like you, I was panicked by all of the bad pblicity that Brennan was receiving.
I called CCCA last night and told them that I did not want to follow through with the contract. They tried to tell me that i was still liable for the initial fee. I told them, in a nutshell, that they were full of sh..well, you know.
In the end, we (my wife and I, agreed to them taking $50 out to cover the work they had done putting the contract together.
Luckily for us, my wife works at the bank where our checking account is located. She went in this morning and made them aware of the possibility of automatic withdrawal and let them know that she has only agreed to $50. If any amount other than that comes through - they are to deny it.

To cover all the work they did for you putting together the contract? If you bought that line you deserve to lose your $50 bucks. These are tried and true preditory tactics to separate a passive consumer with thier money. Please...Please...Please steal my money so I can DO NOTHING, SHUT UP, and GO AWAY.

Well, losing $50 is a lot better than losing $300...

I agree that they did little to no work putting to gether a contract for me, but when I was able to get them to settle for less, I was pleased.

Per the original phone conversation, I was responsible for paying the full $300 whether or not I accepted the contract.

I just signed up with this forum and got a call from Consumer credit counseling of America. Before I was able to research this forum about them, I signed up eagerly for debt consolidation. I gave them all my banking info. Then I called them a few days later and canceled. They told me that I still owe them for the first payment of $200. I emailed them back and said pretty much "hell no". They have not responded and that was 5 days ago. I have already changed the booking number on my bank account. They are suppose to debit my account on May 30th. Do i owe them anything? I did not return any of the paperwork or sign a contract. Can they take me to court or turn me over to a collect agency??

I know they told me that the first payment is non refundable... but I assume that it is non refundable deposit when you start their program, and since I never started their program, I don't owe them squat! They are suppose to debit my bank on the 30th... I don't know why they won't respond to my email. They were so eager to talk to me when they wanted me to sign up but why aren't they so eager when I want to cancel. I guess we'll find out what's going on in a few days! Oh the suspense lol

Would any reputable business insist on keeping a NEW clients money if they (the client) changed thier minds within the first weeks? I think its even worse for companies who operate under Christian sounding names.

I cant help but let those who have dealings with him that are positive,you are truly the lucky few.......and from personal exp I dont know why they chose you to be legit with.....again from personal exp I can say that this company knows the gray areas and lives there!!!! any way to scam they will find and for those who have been doing stop pays....keep doing it they have been scrambling to find a way around that since it was confirmed to them that a person can go all the way back to the beginning of ach transactions they have taken and have that money back....talk to your banks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

My question is will he be able to practice law if he is found guilty of being fraud? Someone please say yes.

In 1989 I signed up with Consumer credit counseling of America in Wichita, KS. I got great financial advice and for a flat fee of 25.00, we set up a plan and all my bills were paid off in 3 years.

In 2006, we decided to go with the same company. Long story, but turns out it ended up being the law offices of Richard A. Brennan..and they charged us $500.00 to sign up. :roll: We paid it..and have been paying 1650.00 a month for the past 5 months. Problem is, they didn't pay one account on time so that company dropped us. They've been calling. I called Richard A. Brennan..and they still have not resolved the issue. Pretty bad when you turn stuff over to avoid collections, and then collections begin anyway! Their operators (counselors...ha) are very snippy and rude. I feel sick to my stomach. They don't return calls, and have not sent the information I have requested. I keep a log everytime I call..and who I talked to. Even though the website said it was Consumer Credit Counselors of America...it is not the same company I dealt with back in 1989. :( I don't know what to do at this point.

I was researching the Class Action Lawsuit being brought against Richard A. Brennan and discovered something absolutely shocking. The IRS is after him for not paying his taxes. The IRS has filed charges against him to collect $187,000 in back taxes. It even looks like he wont pay his Maryland taxes too. Wow!

Go to Google and type in Maryland Judiciary Case Search. Enter Richard A. Brennan and you will see for yourself. What a scum bag. Now I know where all our money went.

has anyone found out how to get the money back. i have court dates because of them. i have been paying hundreds of dollars a month for years and my debt is larger! help. please.

+1.2024224506


yes this is richard a brennans cell phone number. i called him at 10:00pm fri night. and boy did i get some lame excuses from him..

me- hi is this richard a brennan?
rab- yes how did you get my cell phone number.
Me- i spent 5 hours online looking up how many people have lost money because of your company and i stumbled apon a website that gave me everything about you but your first pets name.
rab- oh i see
me-i have been trying to get in touch with your office for months.
rab- oh who is your case worker?
me- mellisa martin
rab- oh thats why she hasnt worked for us in a long time.
me- okay well why havent i been contacted.
rab- we had a building fire and our phones are down.
me- okay.

this is when he told me to call him tommorrow and gave me a number to call.

i havent been taken care of yet why would tommorrow be any better.
i have lawyers callin me and i have court dates to show up at because they havent protected me like they told me they would. what am i to do now. just go to court and tell them what has happened and maybe i will get a pitty settlement?!

The only fires in that building are the ones the paralegals keep trying to put out that he and another unmentioned have created. It is ashame that the lies never stop.

I was referred to a debt management company to consolidate my credit card debt and lower my monthly payment. I was never late and always sent more then the minimum payment to my creditors. I signed up for the program because I had high interest rates. I thought the smart thing to do was to go through a debt management company. I signed the contract for the company on 03/29/06. I assumed over the months I would see my debt start to decrease but I was wrong. I was debited $215.00 a month from 3/29/06 to 8/23/06 .

Here our the Drafts from my account

3/29/06 -215 04/24/06 - 215 05/23/06 - 215 06/7/06 -215

07/24/06 - 215 08/23/06 - 215 and recently on 10/27/06( I never gave Richard A Brennan authorization to debit from my account. )

In my eyes this is breach of contract meaning they didn????????t hold there end of the contract by paying my creditors Richard A Brennan and company debited my account and didn????????t send it to my creditors as they should have.

I am not only concerned but I am stressed out and in over my head because over the months the Debt Management Company was suppose to disburse the money they debited from my account to the creditors. The result of the disbursement was very negative. I then called Credit Cure / Law Office of Richard A Brennan. Here our the contact numbers I called to reach the representatives. Credit cure 1-877-895-1607
Law Office of Richard A Brennan 1-877-895-1607 Natasha West 240-215-3634
Meteya 240-215-3934. Or 301-624-0023

When I called, most of the time the person would answer the other line with replying to me such as hello? Who is this ? Or is this Joe? That doesn????????t sound to professional to me. I finally reached Meteya Hart-Love, a manager of the Law Office I suppose. Ms. Meteya acted as if she was going to help me resolve my issues. After our phone conversation, I sent her all my statements over the months from my creditors and she told me she would get right back to me the next day. After waiting for a few days for a phone call I then called her repeatedly for several weeks, a dozen or more times, leaving her message after message and I have yet to hear back. On the terms of what happen calling a lawyer sounded about right in my circumstance. The lawyers I spoke with directed me to write to the Attorney Generals office for both the state of Florida and West Virginia.

Because of this company I am at loss of Money. Also, my credit rating has gone from a 7.2 to some ridiculous low score. I owe more on my accounts now then I did when I signed with the company. I also have to situate these matters with my creditors and credit bureau.

Update - on 5/1/07 I called the Law office of Richard Brennan and spoke with Romi she implied that I would be getting a check in the mail and that Meteya hart love was taking care of it. This is over a year later I am still getting the run around . Romi couldn????????t tell me when or how much this check would be for . This woman replied to my complaints by saying Meteya has a lot of paper work and the company has gone through an audit . This company is such a scam.

I would like my complaint resolved by gaining all my losses described above back to me.

Mr. Brennans comments make me laugh. The IRS shut down those on-profit organizations that were not really non profit. He claims that all 75 firms being investigated lost their license. This is also not true. It is also not true that without a 501 c 3 there is no credit counseling. creditors work with for profit credit counseling agencies.

The move from creditcure to RAB was a business move by Jeff Formulak and Richard Brennan who are partners. You see in order to skate the laws in our country these non-profit dmp companies hid behind a lawfirm so they can claim the first payment is a retainer for a lawyer, yet, 99% of their employees are not lawyers, the only lawyer is Richard.

Richard tell the truth. You and Jeff are still trying to scam consumers

Your phines are disconnected and no answer to my emails. May you ROT IN HELL

The law office of RICHARD A. BRENNAN defrauded and misrepresented me. NOT ONE CREDITOR GOT PAID FOR SEVEN MONTHS....so seven months of interest and late fees were added to my balances. No response to emails, phone calls. My credit has been ruined...I have been sued....This guy is a joke!!!

He owes me almost $1200. His office was paying my creditors for awhile, altough always late. Then his office sent out hot checks to all of my creditors - 2 months in a row. So I ended up being hit with late fee's and returned check fees..

Also, during the time that he was paying my accts - since he was paying them so late - several months, I had to pay my creditors myself, in addition to the $$ that he was taking out of my acct, to keep my creditors from defaulting on me. So, he would take $424, and then I would have to pay another $424 since he was not paying them on time....

I too would like to get involved in any suits against him, to get my money back. I'm definitely not rich, and I could certainly use $1200 myself!!!

Can anyone advise how I can go about getting my $$ back?? :evil:

When he took over my acct from Credit Cure, his office was paying my bills for me - although most of the time paying late..

However, his payments to my creditors for Nov 06 and Dec 06 bounced, thus causing me to be billed for returned check fees and also late fee's..

Luckily my acct was turned over to another company, who is doing a great job..

BUT, RAB owe's me for 2 months where he took out $424 each month, then the returned check fee's and also late fee's.. He owes me $1162.00. I have sent several emails to previous employees, but they bounce back. I have tried several phone numbers, but they are all disconnected.

Earlier this year, I did speak to someone in his office, after the checks bounced -and was told that they had a 3rd party company doing the audit of accts to see what happened.. Then, in May/June - I called and got recording that told me to send a fax to their office - but when I went to send it, the # was disconnected.

How can I get my money back, can I get in on the lawsuit, and if so - how??

I don't want to be nasty, I just want what is rightfully due to me.

Can anyone help??

Can anyone give me a e-mail address or phone number for a person at this company willing to talk to me about getting a refund? I have been calling leaving messages, e-mailing and doing this every week since April 18, 2007. They need training on customer service. They should know that people in our situation are at the end of our ropes and need to be handled better than just being ignored.
Please if Richard stills looks at these post's tell me what to do.

Carol

202-422-4506 for Carol

Richard,
I was contacted by Mattea several months ago. She was confirming my address so that a refund could be sent. Since that time nothing has arrived. Could ou please advise on this matter.
James R. McKinney

Beware readers! I come to you with the reality, so please let it sink in.

These are the companies connected to Mr. Brennan:

The Law Offices Of Richard A Brennan
The Law Offices Of Brennan, Smith, & Associates
The Frederick Law Group
Every on owned by Mr. Brennan as Law Offices.

These are his sales offices and business connected to him:

American Telecommunications Solutions, LLC
American Debt Advisors(with an "S")
ACCI in Florida
American Debt Negotiators
CCCA out of Mass
Marquis Debt out of New York State

There is another, but i'm not sure what they are going to call it. They plan on using it if he loses his license to practice law.

My suggestion to everyone of you is to contact the Maryland Attorney Grievance or The Maryland Attorney General if you have been scammed. Also, if you use Global Client Solutions(aka: Rocky Mtn Bank)for your monthly payments), contact them immediately if you should have money in trust. If it isn't there, contact the above organizations.

He also has a pending case at the Dept of Labor in the state of MD because of what he has done to past employees.

He never had a fire. Jeff Formulak and Richard Brennan are still partners, Jeff is just the silent one. He runs the sales office for him in the same building. Don't let a phony address fool you. Oh, wait, I don't want to get in trouble for liable, my understanding is that Richard gave Jeff the business, I highly doubt it, but hey who knows since everything in that office is such a mystery.

They both claim to be broke, but, hmmmmm, I wonder.

Put it this way there are a total of at least 5 Mercedes involved here, that they both still own, so things must not be too bad. 2 of them are over $140,000. Wow, I wish I was that broke.

Rich and Jeff will be going crazy after they read this one. They won't comment here or anything, but they will rant and rave and piss all over themselves that someone would go on here and put all the info out, and then tell someone in their office that it is all lies, but you know, they know the deal. Karma is coming for you guys and its a shame. You could have done great things for those people. You could have made a difference in the lives of your clients and the lives of some of your employees that worked their rears off for you.

Look guys, no hard feelings. Everyone makes mistakes. I just hope you have the balls to pay for them, or at least the lube when you get bent over 5 ways to Sunday.

In the mortal words of Formulak "Write em up" cause I'm too much of a p"""y to do it myself. Oh, and Jeff, also in your words "no offense".

What would happen if you closed the account that your payment were coming out of so that the payment couldn't be taken out. Would this stop him?

Notify his office in writing. If you have an escrow account set up thru Global Client Solutions from which your bills are SUPPOSED to be paid notify them online or call that you want to close the account and ask for a refund if you have any $ left (they will take their processing fee of course). If Brennan continues to debit your checking acct after you notify him of canceling, file a stop payment or fill out an ACH form at your bank. Hope this helps, I'm still out his retainer fee of $1500 though, I've also filed a complaint with BBB. Try to renegotiate with your creditors and explain about the regrettable mistake you made thinking this guy was legitimate. :evil:

I had an account with Credicure which, previously, was held with Nexum. Long story short,Nexum was a disaster; Credicure started out well but in time deteriorated into the same rediculous state of affairs I'd had with Nexum. Non-forwarding of payments to my credit card debtors; poor response patterns to my questions; rude service from Brennens "associates"; unreturned phone calls and emails. I finally contacted the BB Bureau for assistance, but by the time they began to moved on the problems I had with CCure I decided to cut my losses, pay off my CC Balances to another card (this, after Brennens late/non forwarding of payments had resulted in an increase from a 14% to 27% interest
rate on my card) and get out of Brennens shyster outfit for good.

One interesting item in the mess above had to do with Brennen's alleged discontinuance of operations as a Credit agency, a discontinuance which supposedly occurred in 2/06. I've always found it interesting that I received, from Brennen personally, a phone message telling me to continue sending payments to him-this message was sent to me in April/06 - two months after his operation "supposedly" ceased operating as a CC agency.

This guy (Brennen) is slick; he's very good at making you think that he's very concerned about your accounts, and he and his staff are adept at "reassuring" clients that their payments are well and soon on their way to their credit cart debtors.

As an attorney, Brennen has some issues; I know I wouldn't trust this shady sob to mitigate an 18 inch property line dispute with a neighbor, let alone handle my financial affairs. If you sign up with this guy get out of the deal if possible, as soon as possible.

In addition, Brennen is very good at coming up with
various forms of nonsense in his response to complaints on this board.

Just another note-be wary of any posters here who compliment Brennan on anything. I would not put it past this guy to make up fake complimentary posts for himself, not for a New York minute. This guy has criminal/theif/crook written all over him.

I looked into the IRS taxation matter at the Maryland Circuit Court web page, as suggested by another poster. It appears Brennan has gotten into trouble with the IRS-owing a large sum in unpaid taxes. I hold every hope that he loses everything, including his license to practice law. May he indeed burn in hell.

All you need to do is contact global client solutions. They can even reverse every payment that has been made up to two years. By law they cannot come after your account that you have been using. Why be put off by that when Global will protect your information.

I signed a contract with Brennan, Smith, & Associates. I am experiencing some of the same problems as other responders. The company in which the law office set me up with has cost me around $100.00 in late charges over the last 4 months by not making my minimum payment. I feel that even though the law office themselves cannot help how the dept management company handles our accounts, they should be a little more aware of the companies they are representing. As far as I'm concerned it makes them just as guilty. If they had researched some of the companies that they have been representing, maybe they wouldn't be receiving so much of the blame and bad responses by those that feel this whole debt management is just a scam. When I spoke with Mr. Gogatz about my concerns about signing up with this company, he convinced me that signing on was the best way for me take care of my credit cards,
but I don't feel that he was exactly straight-up me. It took me not being nice in order to even speak with someone concerning the late charges they were costing me. It was suggested to me that I should continue making my minimum payment directly to the credit card companies as well as the funds that they are sending. Exactly how is this helping me financially? Their charging me $2000.00 on top of what I owe on my cards and I still have to continue to make payments until they can work something out. This is rediculous. Research before signing the dotted line. I know I will from now on.

HMMM where do I start, I was led to this site by someone you tried to lead here. You know who I am Mr. Alera. (Sorry that car is so little seen I am not sure how to spell it) could be Alero? You seem to know so much but yet so little. Maybe alittle inside info from a 4 day missing computer, let's see the time to report that hasn't run out yet according to WV state law which is where it ended up. Hope you had time to get all the info you needed before returning it. By the way I doubt that Richard or Jeff read this trash because of postings like yours, but you can bet one thing, it will be brought to their attention and if Richard is as slick as you say then he will know exactly who you are, just as I do. Oh, don't bother to respond, I won't be back. First on and first off.
A wise person once said "don't bite the hand that feeds you" Would that be unemployment by any chance?
Another wise person said get an attorney before the attorney get you. Oh I think I said that.

Fraudulent from the get go. The office phone # is now a fax. The 800# doesn't take messages because the inbox is constantly full. How does this guy get away with it?? Creep!

Dont bite the hand that feeds you, unless of course it is not, and instead stuffing its own face!

the truth,
After reading your June posting, because I just found this site. It seems that your statement about the paralegals tells who you are. Was that about the time, well you know, I won't say it here.

I forgot that I also noticed that messenger is the same person as the truth, notice noone else cared enoughto respond and changing your username is like hiding behind voicemail.

Yes, RAB still owes me money. Yes, I am still working to get a refund.

But, I have to say, financially things are better for us than ever before. We took a class though our church called "Financial Peace University" by Dave Ramsey. It has changed our lives. He also has some good books. You can google it, if you are interested. I can't say enough good things about the class. Life is just so much better when you are leaving debt behind.

First off, Jeff Formulak, Donna Cable or whoever it is that can't spell also known as "a small town" if I had anything to be afraid of it certainly isn't Richard A Brennan. I didn't have to dig for information. It is all there in plain sight and its a shame that you people are sick enough to defend what they are doing. The people that trusted them have families and very little money. Do you feel that what they are doing is right? I'm sure you work with them or something if it isn't Jeff. Maybe Rich's fiance, who knows. And for the record, that hand didn't feed me which is why I'm here. Nor is it feeding the people that it promised to. Things have been wrong there since September 2005 before CrediCure was shut down, so you can believe what you want.

Also, don't threaten a lawsuit if you aren't going to do it, because that would be against the law as well. I'm not messenger, and some of you may know me. That's okay. And spy in pa or whatever your name is, no one else cared to respond? Customers are responding daily. They are the ones who suffered, don't forget that. It is very simple. If they don't pay here, they will pay in hell. Frankly, I would rather do it here. All customers I apologize for my cryptic way of handling things, and I wish you all well. Keep fighting the fight. For the record, don't blame the staff, they are innocent. They are only doing what they are told. I wish them all the best as well, since they have been fooled just like us all. Good luck!

I too was duped by Mr. Brennan and his office. They will not work in your best interest. I have wasted 500.00 dollars and received no help.

I want to thank everybody here for bringing to my attention what a scam artist Richard Brennan is. My husband and I signed up with Consumer Credit Counselors of America and were put in with the law offices of Richard Brennan. Up until that point we were in good standing with our credit card payments, we just wanted to lower our interest rates. Well Richard Brennan got $376.00 of my money and was about to take another $376.00 out tomorrow. After a month of calling to see why they have not even negotiated with our creditors (who called every half hour wanting their payments) I decided to see if Richard Brennan had a website so I could see if this was common for them to take so long to even assign someone in the office to take our case. Well, as you know, there is no website...just complaint boards with endless threads about Richie Rich. I realized we had to stop any payments and we had to cancel our contract. I took everyones advice and went first thing Monday morning to my bank and had my account changed. My husband called Richard's office and before he could get a word in the woman said that no one had been assigned our case yet. Mind you they were supposed to take another payment tomorrow and no one was even looking at our case, let alone calling our creditors. He told them we were cancelling and they asked why. He said because of a lack of getting anything done. Guess what? Not an hour later a person from the law office called and said they had been assigned our case. They wanted to know if we still wanted to cancel. My husband just said "Yes." They asked again in different words and all he said was "Yes." Thank god for everyone here. You saved me from losing so much more money. I'm gratetful for anyone who spoke out about this. Just know that YOU are the people who help people. Not Richard Brennan. God Bless You All and may good times be in your near future.

I to have been taken by this creep .I wish I new what to do to stop him and his band of thieves .If anyone knows of a way please email me email address removed as per forum rules - Mike .

Thank you Iam sure to be more careful in the future