Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  04/24/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My husband and I paid $3500 retainer fee to have the Pall law firm fight for supervised visits for his children he has custody of on their mother. Hired Jan, 2022. We had court April, 2022 and won. Still have no copy of the orders and we have asked multiple times for the orders as well as an itemized bill since we had to do most of the work in the case. ***** mother was also supposed to do counseling with them and wouldnt since we didnt have anything in writing. We have been told multiple times it was almost ready and we would have something soon, but we still don't have any orders or an itemized bill. It's been over a year since we hired her and over a year now since out court case.

  Business response

  05/03/2023

  I have a long history with ************************* (who is actually my client) and his wife *********** 

  
  ******* has a stepchild named *************************** who was born during his previous relationship with *****************************. This mother did not realize that she was pregnant when she began her dating relationship with ***************After the child was born, ******* raised the child as his own. Thereafter,******* and ******* had a biological child named ********************** 

  
  Both children would be the subject of the future legal matters that are relevant to this complaint. 
  After ******* and *******'s relationship ended, ******* and the two boys would reside wherever mom would be living with her current boyfriend.In the years that followed, the children were eventually placed in danger while in the custody of their mother. The children reported poor living conditions,drug use by mom and boyfriend, and neglect of the kid when mom would pass out with her boyfriend for very long periods of time. 
  In the years 2017-2019, ******* and ***** initiated a custody battle against ***************************** and we ultimately prevailed. However, in terms of payment for the services we were offering them, we ended up taking minimal payments or not billing for all activities and ended up writing off portions of their previous balance. ******* was the main breadwinner in the home, these children were genuinely in danger, ***** had two special needs children and was attending nursing school. ******* and ***** were good people with an obvious need so I would accept $50 payments, $100 payments etc and never withdrew from continuing to represent them despite them owing money to my firm. No good deed goes unpunished it seems. 
  At the end of that case, ******* had legal custody of both ***** and ****** and ******* had standard visitation orders. 

  
  Between the ending of that case and the beginning of this case,***** texted me that she needed help because the father of her daughter's baby (*****'s grandchild) had been unfairly brought back to court and needed assistance on some ridiculous motion for new trial that had should not have been filed. She and her daughter were distressed and upset. Since I was scheduled to be in court on the day that this matter was to be heard, I was at the courthouse and appeared on behalf of *****'s daughter's baby daddy and got the motion for new trial shot down. I charged nothing to ***** for talking to her about this matter, reviewing the file, conducting legal research, and appearing at court. Again, no good deed goes unpunished. 
  ** January 2022, ***** texted and called my personal cell phone (which she has always had access to and frequently texted before or after working hours) stating that ****** started having mental illness disturbances similar to that of another one of *******'s children, his behavior had been deteriorating, he was getting caught in their home with drugs, he wasn't attending school, and the influence of his mother ******* was the likely culprit along with some very real mental problems. 

  
  ***** was concerned at the time that CPS might investigate her if they caught wind of the drugs being brought into her home by ****** in addition to the behavioral issues. ***** had now graduated from nursing school and been licensed as an RN so that was an additional concern. I suggested to ***** that she and ******* consider admitting ****** into an inpatient facility rather than just let him go live with mother because to just give up on this kid would look as if ******* was a fit parent such that ***** should be with her as well. 

  
  Around this time, ******* was living in some all-bills-paid cabins in the adjacent town of Bloomington. These cabins were difficult to find an address for and ******* was not telling ******* what her address really was.******* would pick up the kids from school or ********* house so he was never in a position to go to her residence. These all-bills-paid cabins in Bloomington are frequently rented by persons who use illegal substances (as a criminal defense attorney we heard the stories all the time) so this was an additional concern for *************** 

  
  ******* and ***** wanted to file a petition to modify the prior orders and re-hire me to pursue getting *******'s visitation removed or supervised among other things. But this time around, since I had done a lot of previous work for free and written off other previous work, I now requested a retainer of $3500. 

  
  After I was hired, ****** went for visitation with his mother and never returned for more than a week. ******* became an issue and neither ******* or ***** believed that ****** would come willingly if served by a normal process server. There was also concern about ****** using drugs and flipping out on whomever came to the door. We still didn't know where ******* was located. 

  
  Eventually we found ******* and initiated drafting and filing the petition along with a request to the court to ***** a writ of attachment so that law enforcement could pick up ****** and a temporary restraining order to stop *******'s usual visitation and access to the boys. Keep in mind that ****** and ***** have two completely different cause numbers because of this unique family situation. ****** is the biological son of ***************************** and ************************* but because ******* had a stepfather interest in the child, he is an additional party. ***** is the biological son of ***************************** and *************************. Because the boys had two separate cause numbers, we had to draft two different sets of paperwork and we had to payout to the sheriff's office for service on multiple sets of paperwork. Of the $3500 that was initially paid to my firm, nearly $1000 was paid out to the Victoria ****** **************** to complete service of 2 petitions, 2 temporary restraining orders, and 1 writ of attachment to take custody of ******. The sheriff found ****** at ********************** and he came home to ******* and ***** without issue. The sheriff office also successfully served ******* later that evening. 
  The initial temporary orders hearing was scheduled for ***** 11,2022. I predicted that ******* might appear and request more time to hire an attorney (as she had in the previous case) so I advised ******* and ***** to not take off work. Sure enough ******* appeared and requested a reset. 
  On ***** 26, 2022 we conducted the temporary orders hearing and I was at the courthouse all day. After the conclusion of that hearing, the court ordered that ******* could only have supervised visitation. Everything they wanted. Since this hearing, ***** reports that ******* never sees the kids and ****** has now left their household. 

  
  Since there was some testimony about her income, ***** believed that the court had increased *******'s child support obligation and became very insistent that the temporary order got entered ASAP. After their temporary orders hearing, I had a few personal issues that put me very behind at my law firm. The paralegal that I had employed to assist with client matters ultimately left the firm, my father had a near-death cardiac issue that spring and required a great deal of assistance, I had personal illness and multiple dental surgeries in the months that followed their hearing. I fell behind on just getting the orders drafted and getting them entered but because ***** wasn't reporting any problems or involvement or visitation by *******, it wasn't the highest priority in the backlog of work I had at the time. But ***** continued to insist that she needed the orders so that she could go to the Attorney General and force ******* to pay the higher amount she believed had been ordered (and frankly the increase in *******'s income was a part of my notes from that hearing and I likewise believed that the court had ordered an increase from that day).

  
  I drafted the order and delivered it to the court secretary for judge's review and signature but I never got a call back on whether it was signed.She had been out for personal illness as well for several weeks and the person filling in could not give me an answer as to whether the judge had reviewed or signed it. Ultimately when the secretary returned, I was told that judge had reviewed his notes from that hearing and did not see where he had ever ordered child support. I requested the transcript from the court reporter and sure enough no child support increase had been ordered. 
  When I informed ***** that no child support had been ordered,she replied that she didn't care about the child support because she knew ******* would never pay anyway and she never sees the kids and ****** had left their home so it was no big deal. Nonetheless she continues to complain that this temporary order hasn't been entered and that the lack of entry has negatively affected her life somehow someway. 

  
  The request for refund is ludicrous given the amount of service that ******* and ***** have received for this and other cases. In reviewing their current invoice, they now owe the firm over $2000 for services rendered above and beyond the original $3500 deposit. I have requested a setting from the court to enter these temporary orders and withdraw from the case and that will be completed within the next couple of weeks. This complaint appears to be an avenue for ***** to yet again receive free services despite our firm achieving their goals each and every time. I have never presented ******* and ***** with a bill or demanded payment because I desired to complete the task of entering these orders before doing so. I can also attest that I have not billed ******* and ***** for each and every action I have taken on this case. Yet again, no good deed goes unpunished. 

  Customer response

  05/04/2023

  Complaint: 19967522
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Regards,
  
  *****************************

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