Complaints

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  1st Choice Legal Assistance

  802 14th St Ste A Modesto, CA 95354-1029

  
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  1st Choice Legal Assistance

  600 N 2nd St suite 2 Patterson, CA 95363-2129

  

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/02/2024

  Type:Product 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.

  This business is a paralegal service, however, the owner, ****** ****** indisputably provided us with legal advice in addition to misrepresenting her services. During our first meeting on July 11, she advised us about how to file a child custody order as well as advising us about how to file a case for grandparent's rights. During this initial meeting, she stated that would have us email her all of the information for both cases and that she would professionally compile them into a document that would be acceptable for the court. She also stated that she did not know anything about grandparent's rights but that she would look into it. She collected $3212.50 from us for these proposed services. After nearly 6 weeks, she finally sent a document that was clearly just copied and pasted from the emails that were sent to her. We had to personally rewrite the entire document before submission to the court. The requests for court order was immediatly denied by the court as there were several procedural errors in them. When I further discussed the issue with Ms ****** she told me she had personally won a court case in which the grandparents received full custody over the birth parents. This was in direct contradiction to our original conversation in which she stated that she did not know much about grandparent's rights and would have to research it. We subsequently had to consult a family law attorney, at a cost of another $4000, to retain. She explained all of the errors in the documents prepared by Ms ****** When I contacted Ms ****** she agreed to return a filing fee of $495 but refused to provide any further action/refund. I believe that her behavior was an egregious lack of professionalism and integrity. She clearly provided legal advice, that was INCORRECT, which is a violation of her professional occupation. I am requesting a full refund of the remaining balance of $2717.50.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/07/2024

  My business is not a paralegal service. I am a Legal Document Preparer and by law, we are not allowed to present ourselves as a paralegal to the public, unless we are specifically working for an attorney.I explained that to Ms. ***** when she was in the office. Additionally, at our first meeting and as per the contract Ms. ***** executed and initialed, I advised her I was not an attorney and never gave her legal advice. I told her I had several attorneys which I work with that could help should they desire an attorney for their hearings. As per her own statement to the BBB, I told her I did not know about grandparents rights but I did explain my experience with preparing documents regarding grandparents rights which is not against the law. Ms. ***** wanted to know if there was law about grandparents rights which I stated I would have to research and get back to her. I have a family law attorney who will pull the laws up and send them to me for clients should anyone have questions. This avoids a party to have a pay a consult fee with an attorney just for that information. Ms. ****** complaint is a conglomeration of two separate cases in which she hired me. I have two separate fee agreements which include one signed by Ms. ***** and one signed by ******* *****, Ms. ****** ************ ***** paid the entire fee herself and therefore, claims a refund of $2,717.50. Ms. ****** case had several issues that needed to be addressed as you can see per the attached declaration and supplemental declaration. After receiving several in depth emails, photos and other attachments, I drafted the document. Documents are drafted several times and are NEVER perfect on the first attempt as Ms. ***** claims it should have been.Clearly, no one could reach expectations like that as a Legal Document Preparer, I am receiving the clients written statements as it is their lives.I move things as needed, add stronger sentences as needed, just as any other person drafting documents. This is done in one attempt or several attempts if necessary and due to the substantial amount of issues, this was done in two separate declarations when it was finally completed. Ms. ****** statement is missing a bit of information,including the fact the document she is speaking of is in regard to Ms. ****** case. I prepared a Request for Order with Temporary Orders for sole custody and with an order shortening time for hearing for Ms. ****** No one can say a temporary order request for sole custody is going to be approved or denied and I never in any way shape or form represented it positively would. I do hope for the best with all of the documents I have created over the past 30 years of experience. Ms. ****** Request for Order was denied temporary orders and approved for the order shortening time for hearing. Not I or any other person can find out why a judge denied them at the time of reading the documents which I explained to both Ms. ***** and Ms. ***** at the time of receiving them back from the Court. I had a telephone call with Ms. ***** discussing the documents which Ms. ***** was not a part of.The documents were prepared professionally, and they were acceptable for the Court. Ms. ****** concern is that the court did not approve the temporary orders. Just because temporary orders were not granted does not mean that the documents were not prepared professionally or that they were unacceptable for the Court. It means that the Judge did not want to set temporary orders. When I initially met with the parties, I explained to them that I had several attorneys I refer to and that they set their own prices. I have nothing to do with her hiring an attorney as anyone has the opportunity to appear by themselves at a hearing and can hire an attorney if they feel necessary as it is a choice. Ms. ***** met with an attorney and then decided to not move forward with filing her documents. I had already prepared the paperwork related to Ms. ****** grandparent visitation request prior to her deciding not to proceed (which I provided to her). Therefore, there is only the filing fees which I have to return and that is why I refunded the $495.00. I also had already prepared and filed Ms. ****** documents therefore, there is not a refund available for any of those services. I did the job they hired me to do and Ms. ***** is upset because the orders were not approved and during the meeting with an attorney the attorney made statements to her about my paperwork and hers. If you met with fifty attorneys, every attorney would have a different outlook and that is not my fault. Once she met with the attorney, then all of sudden she made these unrealistic demands and then wanted to say my behavior was not egregious lack of professionalism and integrity. I did my job and went above and beyond my scope of services by setting Ms. ***** up with the attorney by calling them myself to discuss the consultation, etc. I did not do anything wrong and therefore do not agree with her complaint. See additional email with attachments sent to ************************************************* that I am requesting to be attached to my response and sent to Ms. ******

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/09/2024

  Please see the attachments. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/10/2024

  I am rejecting this response because:

  If you read the attached statement from her email, she clearly states that she will be sending a "dec to review and approve".  That seems to indicate that the document that she would be sending would be complete and all it needed was us to review and approve it.   It does not say anything about her cutting and pasting our emails into a document and giving us this completely raw document.  This document was a complete mess, it was not chronological or organized by indident or any other reasonable format that made sense.  Had this document been "approved" by us and submitted to the court in the format that she gave to us, it would not have made any sense whatsoever and would not have been understood or approved by the court.  

  She can say all day long that she didn't provide us with legal advice, however, we would not have had any idea what documents needed to be submitted or what information needed to be in it had we not been given ADVICE by her.  She had assured and reassured us several times that she knew what needed to be done and that she would create an impressive document to submit to assist with a very important child custody situation.  At the end of a 90 minute discussion, that was very emotional and intense, we were asked to sign her paperwork that said she had not provided actual advice (which is untrue) and it feels like she took advantage of us.  She was paid approximately $1700 for this first document and she did little more than copy and paste the information (that WE rewrote for her) into the forms.  

  The second document that was to be submitted was 95% exactly what I sent to her.  There were a few introductory lines added but everything else in it was written by me.  She did nothing other than copy and paste my statement into it.  It couldn't have taken more than an hour to create it and yet, she charged nearly $900 for that hour.  And again, her initial comments indicated that she did not know much about grandparent's rights yet, when I asked her about several weeks later, she stated that she had won a case where the grandparents were awarded custody over the natural parents. Which statement is true?

  Both of these documents were very important to us and we TRUSTED her to do the job that we paid her to do.  Her paramount responsibility is to be honest and execute her duties with integrity.  In my opinion, she did neither of those things.  Asking someone to pay her over $3200 abd then those people have to write their own declarations is unacceptable.  For these reasons, I disagree with her interpretation of this complaint and I would not want her to mislead any other potential customers..

  
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/11/2024

  In reviewing *** ****** rejection, she seems to be adamant that I did not do my job which is completely untruthful. I prepared the paperwork and *** ***** obtained a court date. Which means, the documents I prepared were correct and accepted by the Court. Had the work been bad, the Court would have rejected the documents and not allowed them to be filed.
  
  *** ***** does not seem to understand the role of an LDA. We have to take what the clients state and put it into their documents. Most often, the client sends statements, and I have to completely restate them into words acceptable by the Court. *** ****** statement was one that was well written, more specifically, it depict her children who have medical conditions that I would have not be able to describe as to the incidents that occurred as I was not present (hence the reason clients send statements). Additionally, I spent several days and hours on her statement which the first draft was over 30 pages long, double spaced due to the innumerous information provided that was pertinent to her issues. I prepared first draft, then revised the draft based off *** ****** concerns and then during a telephone conversation with ********* I asked her which draft she wanted me to use, the one she wrote or the draft I was revising. *** ***** requested we use the one she revised. I have to do what the client wants. I did exactly what she requested. As I stated in my initial response to the complaint made by *** *****, who is speaking 3rd ****** for her daugther and was not privy to several of my and *** ****** conversations, I told *** ***** that documents will be sent in draft forms. After explaining that to her and the reason why (as described above), *** ***** understood and said that makes sense. Any reasonable ****** knows nothing will be perfect on the first time. There was also an additional declaration that was made of 21 pages that *** ***** mentions nothing of. *** ***** is claiming I should provide her with a full refund when she obtained the Court date as needed. *** ***** stated she needed custody paperwork. That is the information a party would provide to any *** so her claim that I gave advice is completely incorrect. If she or anyone else walked into the self-help at the Courthouse and stated they wanted to have custody papers, that self-help employee would hand her the same paperwork. Her claim is simply to place blame on someone because the Judge denied the temporary order request for custody. That is not my fault. She is overlooking the fact that Judges do that all the time.Sometimes they want more information which they obtain at a hearing. The case was very complex, and I agree that it was emotional. I poured my heart into ********* paperwork, and I did the work I was hired to do per my contract. My fees are a flat rate fee, and they are a fraction of the cost of an attorney.Clients pay me for the services they agree to. *** ***** did just that. I have been completely honest and forthright. My integrity speaks for itself by refunding her filing fees for her documents that were not utilized. I never mislead the clients. The clients deem it feasible to blame me for issues with the Court that I am completely out of control over. I am sorry their requests to the Court did not get granted prior to the hearing but that does not mean that at the hearing a Judge wont make the decision to provide the custody requests the clients make. Again, that still has nothing to do with me or my work. My work is immeasurable and due to it, I have won several awards. I believe ******** is trying to tear me down due to an attorney trying to charge her more money to revise documents that need no revision in efforts to take money from clients. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/29/2024

  Type:Billing 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.

  ****** provided terrible service. Very rude and gave us no respect. Yet, she demanded us to respect her? My wife has asked her nicely four times and she refused to give us an itemized statement after four requests. She over charged us for the hours provided.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/02/2024

  ***************************, ****************** daughter, hired me on 03/11/2024. At that time, ******* called her mother, *******, who immediately started speaking down to me. ******* explained to me that she had a terrible relationship with her Mother and the way she speaks is a huge reason why. I told her she does not need to speak to me that way as I am trying to assist her daughter. ******* grabbed the phone and told her mother she needed to stop because I was working for her. ******* got back on the phone with me and her tone completely had changed.

  Last Thursday, March 28, I received a voicemail and email from ******* requesting an explanation of my charges. My charges are a flat fee for all documents combined. There is not a set price for each document because it would be more costly then the flat fee I provide. I replied to her when I got back into the office explaining that my Fee Agreement (A copy of which is attached to this response), Item 2 shows the itemized list of services I provided. That was not enough for her. She went on saying any attorneys office she dealt with provided an itemized bill for charges, etc. I am not an attorney. I am a legal document preparer and I provide a flat fee for services which I provided to her. Additionally, at the time of the transaction, I emailed and text a copy of the receipt to her daughter as it is her daughter who hired me. ******* immediately sent a picture message to ******* with the receipt and fee agreement. 

  I then called ******* thinking I could ease the back and forth emailing and have a conversation with her. I did not even get three words in attempting to explain that the fee agreement shows the list of documents and that is the itemized document she is requesting and ******* cut me off demanding that I provide this detailed list which is not in my scope of services. I then told her she was not going to yell at me and to let me finish talking. She then started yelling at me at the top of her lungs and I told her I would end the call. I then attempted to call her back because that is not how I like to deal with people and **** got on the phone, yelling demanding an itemized list saying that all the attorneys he dealt with provided them and how terrible I was for not providing them. I could not even get a word in. I told him to quit calling that I was not going to be yelled at. He called my office 5 more times in a row and I finally answered the phone and told him if he called back I would call the police and report the harassment.

  I did not do anything wrong and immediately provided her information at the time of services and in her emailed Request. **** got involved because I would not let him speak. Their daughter apologized to me for even involving them and doing this to me as I did not deserve this since I got her emergency custody of her child. Her daughter also paid for other services herself. ******* promised payment to multiple people that day and has retracted her words and now her daughter is struggling to get the services she needs.

  The fees were $950.00 for my services and an $85.00 filing fee for the ********************************. With the processing fees, it is $1072.69. I have attached the Square Payments Surcharge Calculator that I use to get accurate fees. ******* then emails saying I overcharged her processing fees. My fee agreement breaks down all the processing fees as well. I use square  because square has this page which shows processing fees. It is the clients responsibility to pay processing fees if they do not use Zelle. 

  ******* and ***** are upset that I would not allow them to bully me. They were both yelling on the phone and in voicemails which I can provide should an additional response be necessary. 

  I provide top quality service and my work is superb. These people were mad because I could not give them what they wanted because I am not an attorney and they are trying to compare me to an attorney. I provided them everything they wanted but in a flat fee agreement because that is what their daugther signed.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/02/2024

  I am rejecting this response, because: this is almost hilarious.  I stood and listened to the whole conversation between our daughter, and this woman, ******, on speaker phone.  I am the one who paid for this transaction.  She knows little about what she just wrote a thesis about.  For one when ****** first talked to my wife, she could not answer a question she was asked.  She actually did not know what papers the opposing party had filed, or not filed, when they were sitting right in front of her.  ******, would not pause for any reason and talked continuously and rudely over my wife and she was the one that would not stop interrupting. Like this has anything to do with the fact she over charged us.
  

  Secondly, ****** has shown her lack of professionalism to BBB in e use of our daughters and my wifes names to you. This is not a legal way you use a persons name.  Unbelievable she would put actual names in this.

  Third this is the first we have heard of some of these charges.  Which is what we have asked for.  All business can tell you what documents you were going to file.  That does not matter if youre an attorney, or a paralegal.  ****** has not told us exactly which documents to be filed and which ones were filed.  In fact, some appear to be missing.  She can charge you one charge for the complete filing, but she can also give us an itemize document, showing us what items were to be filled out and what items were or were not..

  The fact is she overcharged us and she knows exactly which ones she overcharged.

  and her response she has added charges to equal the amount that we paid, and we have not even seen the charges before.

   

   

   

  
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/02/2024

  I reject this as I am still being emailed by the ******* at this time. I even resent the charges to her. Now she is saying she did not know of filing fees that she paid. Her initial email to me states the amount she paid. I do not understand what they are arguing about. I provided the information they requested in an email and nothing satisfies them. I am at a loss for words with this.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/02/2024

  I am rejecting this response because:
  My wife and I are not emailing ******.
  We woke this morning to a ridiculous email she had emailed to us. My wife responded to her lengthly message.

  ****** states ***********************, my wife had made agreements with other attorneys that she would pay them also.

  Neither my wife or I have spoken to any other attorney, and we only told our daughter that we would help her out financially.
  we never stated we would pay for any attorneys we never stated we would pay for any para attorneys.

  we never stated any amount.

  we simply told our daughter we were trying to help her out financially.

  We are both to retired old school teachers.

  we do not have the finances to just give money away. ************************* very specific charges and we paid them and we were overcharged and she knows by the exact amount I cant remember but its roughly $90 too much.
  

  She is cynical and mean.  And we were simply trying to talk to her and ask her to explain what we purchased..

  Funny, we were told before paying, verbally we had a stay away order or a restraining order against the father of the child, which was abducted.  If this is the case, why is our daughter currently at the courthouse getting a restraining.

  The point is ****** has never told us exactly what we paid for. That is what we need and she is not a kind person. Best thing you could look at his her very last remark on the email..  she states I hope you find ****** in your hearts. I will be praying for you..  what does that have to do with the money she owes us?

  we are Christians and Christians dont behave anything the way she does. Much less do you put in business notes things about Christianity putting other Christians down