Krista Helton hired an attorney to help her navigate the complicated world of bankruptcy.
“All we really wanted them to do is show up in court for us,” Helton said.
She hired well-known firm KEL. But no one showed up at her hearing last week. Instead, she received a call from her judge.
“She said, “Well, nobody’s here.”
And she’s not alone. Wanda Ward’s attorney was a no-show last month
Matt Englet, managing partner for the firm, told 8 On Your Side last week that electronic communications were down because of a flood at the firm’s Orlando office. He said that should not have impacted hearings, though.
He sent us this statement last week:
“The building where our Orlando office is located experienced a broken pipe which caused the power to fail. That in turn caused our servers to go down. Our server in Orlando provides phones and computers for our Tampa office. The power has not been restored yet. The building management has told us that our power will be up tomorrow morning and all our offices will be fully operational. All court hearings and essential work is still being conducted. Our attorneys are attending all court hearings as usual. We have taken remedial measures to temporarily get our system working. That should be operating our system today. We have alerted all of our clients by email and will continue to do so throughout the day. “We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused some of our clients and we are working hard to get us fully operational as quickly as possible.”
Englet says now business is back to normal and attorneys are trying to reassure clients.
After questions from 8 On Your Side, KEL called Helton to say she can have her money back.
“This is the first time I had to hire an attorney for any reason, and you just trust automatically assume you can trust them, especially a firm that’s that well known like they are.”
Related Story: Flood at Orlando law firm causes panic for clients
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