Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:28/09/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  When I first contaced this law office I was upfront that this is a difficult case and that the city of edmonton is involved. I was told that they had a lawyer that could handle it so I made an appointment for a consultation which cost 472.50$. My consultation was with ****** *****. After explaining what was going on I was told by ****** that it would cost about 20 -30 grand and that because there is so much damage that continues to this day that it was worth suing. I discussed how important it was that I get the ****'s for both properties. I even left my house file which contained the land title, inspection and sale of my property for him to review. I drew pictures and discussed with ****** that the city is keeping the ****'s from me and it was said that we would go through the court to get them. It doesn't matter what was said because ****** forgot as soon as I left that office. The next week I paid a 4000$ retainer as ****** agreed to take the case. I received no communication on the case until I started to ask questions and asked for the return of my house file. After questioning and emailing ****** with information I thought would be important to the case. I received an email back telling me that after drafting the papers for the law suit he reviewed the case better and had questions, that he would call me to discuss. When ****** called I was told that I'm better off selling as is even if I will loose everything. Now it's going to be 10's of thousands of dollars. Why would he draft the papers then review the case better. So I have paid over 3000$ for papers I don't have and can't use. I believe this was done purposely to keep the retainer. It's been 2 weeks since getting my file back but haven't received what was left of my retainer. I don't believe that they will send what they owe me. This business has no integrity and treated me like I didn't matter and took the 5000$ I paid for a useless service that didn't listen or pay attention in the first meeting.

  Business Response

  Date: 30/09/2022

  As discussed, I had to go through a fair number of documents and I drafted a Statement of Claim for her.  After that, I contacted her to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of her case.  She didn’t like me pointing out the weaknesses and fired me.  
  
  I billed for the time spent on the file.  She has had the remainder of her retainer retuned, and she picked up her file weeks ago.
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 18/10/2022

  
  
  ********** ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  From the very first meeting I expressed that this is not just a standard case and ****** agreed and that it was important to see the ****’s. On August 12th I sent an email to **** asking where to send the communications between the city and I, and how long before we get the ****’s, plus getting my house file back. None of these questions were ever answered. Instead I get an email from ****** on August 25th stating that he’s done an initial draft of statement of claim and that he would like further information, and then had a chance to review the file better. 

  Is it this law firm’s regular business practice to ignore questions, and then draft papers before taking a better look at the case. 

  August 26, I once again in an email told ****** that I have been communicating with the city and that it is important to the case as the problems are on going. Again I spoke of the ****’s that the city won’t give me but should be since it’s the job of the city to provide every home owner the information on their property. 

  The one and only phone call I received was basically to get me to drop the lawsuit by making me feel like I had no other options. He was not interested in what has transpired and kept saying that the city can’t do anything. Which the city should have done their job properly when I first reported in 2012. His main concern was the floor of the garage, which is older. 

  The phone call was witnessed by another, I believe it was a student. It didn’t matter what I said, it was believed that I was better off selling as is. All this after drafting up papers which are useless to me. 

  The services of this law firm have been disappointing and costly to me. I paid for a service that didn’t service me in anyway. I was lead to believe in the initial meeting that I had a case and that I would get the ****’s, but after paying the retainer everything changed and everything that was said in the first meeting was ignored. 

  I don’t believe I should have to pay for papers that don’t exist, or for a lawyer who didn’t want to do the work because he doesn’t want to deal with a difficult case.

  It’s unethical to take peoples money and then tell them they’re better off broke. 

  Not once did he want to hear about the communication between the city and I. Not once after the first meeting was anything discussed. Even on the phone call he didn’t ask for more information on the case, it was purely to get me to drop the case in which I did after getting a statement the same day to top up the retainer for another 900$.

  Why wasn’t this case looked at better before drafting papers? When I expressed that I wanted the ****’s why was that ignored? When I wanted to discuss the on going communications and damage why was that ignored? Is this the standard business practice for this law firm?

  This firm took most of the 4000$ retainer and for what?? 

  I am in the process of putting a complaint in with the law society. I don’t feel that what has been done to me is fair or ethical and it shouldn’t have to cost me 4000$.

   

   

   

  ****** *******