Marc Hazel
1/5
This program was great when it was run by Brian Higgins. Now I have more confidence in a paperweight. This program is a liability which deflects responsibility when things go wrong, and then protects their students rather than offering an acceptable threshold of assistance.
As the previous review mentions, they are solely interested in providing a study for the student. This was also apparent for me. They closed my case after I was exposed to a $30,000 counter claim by the defendant, and the advice was that it was okay to file a response to the counter claim late because default judgements are “easy to set aside”.
The courts state that if a party does not reply to a counter claim within 15 days the party bringing the claim can make a motion for a default judgement, whereby an award is granted without trial. And the original claim (mine) would be thrown out.
My student lawyer had no problems not following these guidelines. Furthermore I tried to work together with my student replying to the specifics of the counter claim and their advice was to reply using a two sentence “we deny all the claims made in this counter claim.” Reply, rather than providing feedback on the 20 page response I drafted and was requesting feedback for. I get the impression my student didn’t even look at what I had drafted and feel he was wildly incompetent and exposed me to great risk. When I decided to file the response I had written because my student gave me his two-sentence response a day before the deadline, and was unavailable to speak
to, they dropped my case for not following his advice. This was after he was unable to provide the final deadline for when the response was due. In other words he could not figure out when asked “a response is due 15 days after a party files a claim” I wanted to know if the deadline is counted from the day I receive the mail, or if there is a delay, such as a day later or three days later as is the case with certain delivery methods. It was two days prior to when I believed the 15 day deadline was, and his reply was “as long as you file it within the next two weeks it should be fine, default orders are easy to set aside”. So he’s risking my case being thrown out and me facing a $30,000 counter offer, because he, as a student, in all his wisdom and experience feels default orders are easy to be set aside, offering no feedback for my response which addressed the counter claim points individually and specifically, and feels a blanket statement with no specificity is the best way to set the stage for going into meditation of trial. So if you don’t accept their advice they close your case, if you offer to work together with them, but they don’t have time, and you don’t submit the (inadequate) responses they’ve drafted for you, they drop your file.
I was away, and unavailable and even though my previous clinician was able to file submissions on my behalf, my most recent student (who was immobilized by the fear of doing anything by himself without talking to his overseeing lawyer) didn’t think he was able to do so in my behalf. When I offered to pay so that the submission could be made as early as possible, while I was away; they cited this in my termination letter “that I tried to pay my student” as if paying for legal assistance is akin to a bribe or something. Totally ridiculous.
If there were negative stars I would select them. A total disappointment and now because they closed my case they are ignoring my emails and have documents which they are withholding, so I have to go down there are resolve the situation. If it was a circus it would be funny, run by a bunch of clowns. When people’s livelihoods are on the line, it’s not quite so funny.
