Questions to Ask When Hiring an Attorney

QUESTION 1:   Have you or the attorneys in your firm lived in a community association and/or served on the board of a community association?

ANSWER 1:    Would you fly on a plane with a pilot who has never flown?  Would you trust your child to someone who has never cared for a child?  Would you have surgery by a doctor who has never performed surgery before?  At Kaman & Cusimano, all four partners and several associates do now, or have in the past, lived in a condominium or homeowners association.  David Kaman served as a condominium board president.  Darcy Mehling Good served as a condominium board secretary.  Bob Kmiecik, Jay Cusimano and Janice Zupon currently live within HOA's.  Marie Rutkowski lives in a condominium.  Lynda Kovach currently lives in a condominium and served as vice president and treasurer.  Kim Borchert is currently serving as the board president of her condominium association.  By living within community associations and serving on their boards, the attorneys of Kaman & Cusimano have unique experience to better serve and understand your association and its needs.
 
QUESTION 2:  How much of your practice is devoted to representing community associations?

ANSWER 2:  Some attorneys attempt to obtain community association work in order to "feed" other lawyers in their firm in the areas of Probate, Wills, Corporate or General Real Estate practice areas.  At Kaman & Cusimano, all of our lawyers do only one thing – represent community associations.  Kaman & Cusimano does not represent developers, builders, property managers, owners, contractors or even individuals.  We do not obtain business by representing individual owners in attempts to overthrow current board members.  As a result we never have a conflict of interest.  One hundred percent (100%) of all the work done by all our attorneys is representation of community associations.
 
QUESTION 3:  If the primary attorney is not available to handle an emergency, such as a special meeting, what is the experience of other attorneys in the firm?

ANSWER 3:  The attorneys at Kaman & Cusimano ALL have extensive experience.  Annual meetings, special meetings, construction defect litigation, document amending, and developer transitions are just a few of the areas covered by our firm.  Our collections efforts resulted in the recovery of 2.7 million dollars of delinquent association fees in 2008.  It is our "experienced team" approach that separates us from other firms.  We are large enough to handle all your association's legal needs, and small enough to care.
 
QUESTION 4:  Is the cheapest lawyer the best lawyer?

ANSWER 4:  Common sense dictates the answer to this question.  There is an old saying that: "Good contractors are never cheap and cheap contractors are never good."  This maxim holds true for all professionals serving your association including property managers, accountants, and lawyers.  Our rates are surprisingly affordable and we have represented numerous associations for almost thirty (30) years.  In that time, we have never had a single Bar Association complaint filed against us for a fee dispute.  We do not "nickel and dime" our association clients.

Some attorneys claim to have lower hourly rates.  Our experience enables us to expeditiously handle your inquiries resulting in lower legal fees month after month.  Some attorneys charge less for a collection letter but then charge additional sums if the owner disputes the letter.  Our collection letter charge is "all-inclusive."  Some attorneys charge less for a lien but then charge additional sums to travel to the recorder's office to file the lien and then charge again to re-file the lien when the owner has paid.  Our "all-inclusive" legal fees for lien filing actually turn out to be almost half the cost of some "cheaper" lawyers.  There are no "hidden fees."  Hundreds and hundreds of associations across the State of Ohio have found our experience results in the association incurring significantly less time to answer their questions and as a result the association incurs significantly lower bills in legal fees. 

As an example:  Is your association better off having an attorney billing at $150 per hour, but taking four (4) hours to research and answer your question or have Kaman & Cusimano's attorneys answer the same question in one hour at $170 per hour?