I am a senior 80 years of age. A local attorney recommended and filed a lawsuit and charged me over $200,000 in fees. After his fees had topped $200,000, he asked me to OK an extension of the trial date for 15 months because he was not ready to go to trial. That would have cost another $300,000, so I fired him.
The replacement attorney I got found out that the lawsuit my former attorney had recommended, and filed for me, had no legal merit and could not prevail under any circumstances, and that my former attorney knew this before he filed the lawsuit.
This was reported to the DA's Office, who claimed that this was theft, and to file a crime report, which I did. They also advised me to file a lawsuit against this crooked attorney in order to get the money back which I had paid him.
Because the evidence against my former attorney was so overwhelming and irrefutable, the crooked attorney did not file a rewsponse within the required 30 days, and I filed a request for a default judgment. The judge on the case also turned out to be corrupt, and refused to act on my motion for default, and simply dismissed the case, awarding more money damages to the crooked lawyer.
No legal agency has done anything to investigate or punish this crooked lawyer for his acts, and have treated this as business as usual.
I would appreciate the help of Bonnie Russell and Jeff Macdonald of the UT's Watchdog to right this most outrageous act of elder abuse.
George Newman, gw_newman@yahoo.com, 760-315-2912, P O Box 3247 Ramona, CA 92065
