An attorney working for contingency fees on New York Child Victims Act lawsuits claims that a White Plains law firm has refused to compensate him for his efforts.
Benjamin J. Hinerfeld, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, accused attorney Gina DeCrescenzo and her firm of breach of contract and unjust enrichment, in a complaint filed Oct. 6 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
Hinerfeld claims that the firm failed to pay “contractually agreed compensation related to his work on several yearslong and lucrative contingency fee matters.”
DeCrescenzo stated in an response that “the allegations made against my firm and me are completely without merit, and I look forward to proving what really happened here.”
Hinerfeld says he began focusing on special education law in 2013 and affiliated with the DeCrescenzo firm on an “of counsel” basis.
He worked remotely on about 50 special education cases, and was paid either hourly or with a contingency fee if a case was won.
In 2020, he began working on New York Child Victims Act (CVA) cases. The new law extended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse and victimization cases, enabling adults to sue institutions and individuals for alleged abuses that occurred when they were minors.
The DeCrescenzo firm served as co-counsel on CVA cases with firms from Seattle and Manhattan, according to the complaint, sharing the casework and splitting fees evenly.
Hinerfeld says he negotiated a deal where he would receive 90% of the court-awarded attorney fees for his share of work. For example, if $100,000 was awarded to the firm and he and DeCrescenzo had worked equal hours, he would be entitled to $45,000.
They both worked on CVA cases for a while, the complaint states, but by early 2021 DeCrescenzo had shifted her attention to other work.
Hinerfeld says he was assigned as the lead attorney on six CVA cases and the Seattle firm took the lead on six cases. When it seemed unlikely that he would receive compensation anytime soon, despite spending a lot of time on the cases, he negotiated a new deal.
Now he would receive two-thirds of the fees awarded to the DeCrescenzo firm, according to the complaint, even if he had not been the lead attorney assigned to the cases.
By early 2022, the time had finally arrived where he would start getting paid for his CVA work, the complaint states.
But DeCrescenzo allegedly accused him of not working on the cases, claimed the other firms were dissatisfied with his efforts, said he was not entitled to any fees from cases he did not work on directly, and refused to compensate him.
In May 2022 he resigned.
The complaint does not say how much money has been awarded to the firm from CVA cases, and Hinerfeld is demanding unspecified damages.
He is represented by Philadelphia attorneys Scott B. Goldshaw and Christen L. Casale.
