Paying for a lawyer's sales talk?

Most of the time, when you go in to see a lawyer to discuss hiring him, you don't get a bill. An initial consultation is for a two-fold purpose. The lawyer listens to you about your case and makes at least a preliminary decision about whether he can represent you, and you get a chance to size up the lawyer and determine if you want to hire him (or her). At the first meeting you are not likely to get legal advice, and that's why you don't get charged. You shouldn't have to pay for a sales talk.

A few months ago a McHenry County man told me he had gone to a lawyer's office to explore retaining him. He was handed a thick packet of papers to sign and asked to write a check for $200. He signed and wrote the check. After a very short and timed interview, the initial meeting was over and he was told he would get a call.

Too much time passed and he eventually received a letter saying they would not take his case. That's probably the standard non-engagement letter that he got. He felt burned for the $200, and even then he did the numbers on just how much a law firm would rake in, if all they did was interview people for 15 minutes and charge them $200. At that time he told me the name of the law firm.

And then this morning, the lead article in the Northwest Herald was about a Harvard resident who is being sued by a McHenry County law firm. The newspaper's article about the experience of this resident sounded startlingly similar to the story I had heard months earlier.

There is a posting on 7/1/2007 on RipOffReport.com that purports to describe a potential client's contact with that law firm.
If you have a huge problem with an attorney, whether it's representation (or lack thereof), billing or anything else, contact the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission at http://www.iardc.org/ for starters.

Does anyone have a success story or a flop to tell about an experience with a lawyer?