When Achieve Renewable Energy LLC installed and left me with a geothermal system in my home that had multiple serious deficiencies, they also left me facing tens of thousands of dollars in costs to fix those deficiencies. Since Achieve Renewable Energy LLC also left me with permit and code violations they did not inform me of and were refusing to address the deficiencies of the geothermal system, I eventually sued them. Achieve Renewable Energy LLC and its director Lawrence “Larry” Lessard had Boston MA attorney Christopher Jefford represent them. And in my experience detailed below, I found attorney Christopher Jefford’s conduct to be troublingly similar to that of his clients I sued.
Attorney Christopher Jefford repeatedly defied the MA Rules of Civil Procedure and ignored communications
My attorney mailed my requests for copies of documents to attorney Christopher Jefford. In violation of Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 34(b)(2)(A), attorney Jefford failed to serve a written response within 30 days after the service of the request.In fact, attorney Jefford provided no response of any kind to the request within those 30 days.
Due to attorney Christopher Jefford’s total lack of response to my requests for production of documents, my attorney sent him a letter. In that letter, my attorney explained that the defendants’ failure to provide a timely response created a waiver of the right to lodge objections and asked when I could expect to receive copies of the documents. Again, Christopher Jefford provided no response.
My attorney later followed up with Attorney Christopher Jefford via email about his non-response to the Rule 34 request for production of documents. Yet again, Jefford provided no response whatsoever. Notice a pattern here? By ignoring such formal requests and communications in the course of the lawsuit, Attorney Christopher Jefford not only drove up my legal expenses by thousands of dollars but at the same time I imagine he thereby also saved his clients’ money.
Since he had received no responses to his letters and prior email to attorney Christopher Jefford, my attorney emailed Jefford and requested a conference in accordance with MA Superior Court Rule 9C. Again, attorney Jefford did not respond.
Days later, my attorney called and emailed Jefford. And finally—after months of defying court rules and ignoring communications—Jefford promised to deliver all the requested documents to my attorney by the end of that month. Attorney Jefford also promised to send my attorney a proposal for resolution of the case in a week. Attorney Jefford produced no documents or proposal for resolution whatsoever by the end of that month.
The following month, attorney Christopher Jefford emailed my attorney and stated that he would produce the documents by the end of that week and that was “consistent” with their prior discussions. It was in fact contradicted by Attorney Jefford’s prior promises by email and telephone and therefore was not consistent with the prior emails or discussions.
Days later, attorney Jefford finally produced some documents in response to my Rule 34 request for production of documents. The documents he produced were conspicuously incomplete. Of the 43 categories of documents I requested, attorney Jefford failed to produce at least 15 of those categories. He provided no objection to providing them or any explanation as to their omission. And hundreds of pages of the documents he produced were duplicative or unreadable.
Attorney Christopher Jefford misled the court and wasted my money with a false accusation against me
As part of the discovery process in my lawsuit against them, Achieve Renewable Energy LLC and its director Lawrence “Larry” Lessard requested that I provide them copies of specific documents. In accordance with my obligations under the MA Rules of Civil Procedure, I had copies of those documents delivered to the office of their attorney, Christopher Jefford. I even had the below delivery confirmation from the U.S. postal service.
Nevertheless, attorney Christopher Jefford filed a motion in court asking a judge to order me to provide copies of those documents he already had, falsely accusing me of failing to provide him those documents. He thereby forced me to expend a good deal more of my time and money on paying my attorney to respond to his false accusation.
Christopher Jefford wasted thousands of dollars of my money by defying rules and a judge’s order
Attorney Christopher Jefford apparently had no problem with demanding documents of me as part of the lawsuit’s discovery and falsely accusing me of failing to provide copies of those documents. But when he failed to comply with his obligations under the MA Rules of Civil Procedure to produce copies of documents that I requested, I had to have a judge issue a written order compelling him to produce the documents. And despite the judge giving attorney Christopher Jefford and his clients a lengthy 90-day period in which to comply, they defied the court order and provided nothing to me in those 90 days. I then had to spend more time and money filing yet another motion to address attorney Christopher Jefford’s non-compliance. I believe attorney Christopher Jefford was getting paid by Achieve Renewable Energy LLC’s insurer to engage in that conduct while he bled me of thousands of dollars to pay my attorney to deal with his non-compliance.
Christopher Jefford made legally meritless accusations against me in what seemed to be an attempt to intimidate me into silence
In part because attorney Christopher Jefford and his clients would not comply with court rules or the court’s order to provide relevant information, I used public records requests and other means to get in touch with Achieve Renewable Energy LLC’s other geothermal system customers. Though I was within my rights to do so, attorney Christopher Jefford sent me the below threatening letter in what I believe was an attempt to intimidate me into silence.
My attorney promptly responded with the below letter, basically telling attorney Jefford that his accusations and demands were meritless.
Christopher Jefford wasted more of my time and money by dragging out my deposition
Oral depositions are essentially meetings in a lawsuit where a party can ask related questions of a person, who must answer them under oath. In my lawsuit against Achieve Renewable Energy LLC and its director Lawrence “Larry” Lessard, I had my attorney conduct several depositions. We prepared carefully for each deposition, in part so as not to waste anyone’s time. Thus, most of our depositions lasted no more than three hours and even our deposition of Larry Lessard lasted only one day.
But when attorney Christopher Jefford deposed me, he dragged my deposition out over two days and subjected me to numerous redundant questions. That not only caused me to lose income from taking excessive time away from my work, it also bled me of thousands of dollars to pay my attorney to attend that needlessly prolonged deposition.
Attorney Christopher Jefford has represented Achieve Renewable Energy LLC in multiple lawsuits in MA
I discovered that not only has Achieve Renewable Energy LLC been involved in multiple lawsuits in MA, the company has repeatedly used attorney Christopher Jefford to represent them. That does not surprise me, as I found Lawrence “Larry” Lessard and his attorney Christopher Jefford to be of similar character and conduct.