Mahwah man can pursue suit against Finkelstein & Partners law firm

By KATHLEEN LYNN

STAFF WRITER | The Record

* Cites overcharges in slip-and-fall case

A Mahwah man’s lawsuit claiming that his lawyers overcharged him in a personal-injury case can move forward under a recent court ruling — though one of the original defendants, the well-known law firm Jacoby & Meyers, has been let off the hook.

Jeffrey Harding of Mahwah and his 80-year-old mother, Nancy Harding of Rockland County, hired lawyers with ties to Jacoby & Meyers, a New York company known for its television commercials, to file two slip-and-fall lawsuits on their behalf.

Nancy Harding hired Finkelstein & Partners of Newburgh, N.Y., after she suffered an injury at a Suffern, N.Y., tile business, and Jeffrey Harding, who had a separate case, hired Andrew Finkelstein of Finkelstein & Partners.

The Finkelstein firm shares many office locations and staff with Jacoby & Meyers, according to a lawsuit filed by the Hardings after their slip-and-fall cases were settled.

In their lawsuit, both Nancy and Jeffrey Harding claimed that the lawyers overcharged them by adding fees for services from a company, Total Trial Solutions, which was partly owned by their lawyers. Those fees were in addition to the regular attorneys’ fees of 33 percent of the amount recovered, the Hardings said in their lawsuit, which named Jacoby & Meyers, Finkelstein & Partners, Total Trial Solutions, and…