ComplaintsforLaw Office of Stephen Gassner, APC

• Initial Complaint

  08/22/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This individual has double charged me and had my case for over 6 months. Didn't do any work in my case and has charged me over $6,000. Refuses to give me a refund for work not done on my fileand double charges. He contradicts himself saying they were working on my file then saying that he couldn't work on my divorce since he was working on my Domestic Violence case yet he showed up to court unprepared.

  Business response

  09/21/2023

  STEPHEN GASSNER ATTORNEY AT LAW 
  LAW OFFICE OF STEPHEN GASSNER, APC. 3** ***** ******** **** ******* ** ***** 
  Wednesday, September 20, 2023 
  U.S. Via First Class Email L****** G***** L********************* 
  Re: C******** G****** BBB Case No. 2******* 
  Dear BBB: 
  TELEPHONE (***) ***-**** 
  FAX (***) ***-**** 
  http://familylawupiand.com/ 
  I have read C******** G******'s complaint and it really saddens this office anytime a client is unhappy including Ms. C******** G******. Ms. G****** had 3 cases in our office after leaving her prior attorney and making similar complaints about that attorney. I really do not believe that Ms. G****** understands that law offices are service businesses (meaning) you do not always have a product to take home like you order from Amazon after paying. 
  First, Ms. G****** received the outcome in her case that she wanted, which was to get custody of her daughter. My office accomplished this. At the same time, Ms. G****** had s second case in our office which she made allegations of Domestic Violence against her spouse. After interviewing Ms. G******'s witnesses, no witness gave us supporting evidence that supported her claims. (Not to say it did not happen) but we, along with Ms. G******, decided to settle rather than try to prove her case. 
  Second, because Ms. G****** had several cases in our office, it required us to bill on several different accounts. We explained this billing to Ms. G****** and asked her to point out where any inaccuracies are. We are in the process of looking over all bills and thus far have not found any inaccuracies. Ms. G****** is still in contact with one of my paralegals about this matter. Moreover, Ms. G****** did not complain about billing at this level until "after" she received a favorable outcome in the cases. 
  I just do not believe that all of the work we put in on "three cases", Ms. G****** would believe were a free service that included office meetings, phone calls, attorney appearing at hearings, reviewing her last attorney's documents, reviewing opposing counsels' documents, interviewing witnesses to see if we could use them in Ms. G******'s case, and documents from our office etc... 
  Ms. G****** signed a retainer agreement and was well aware of our billing price per hour. 
  This billing dispute is still an open case in our office as Ms. G****** is aware. We are looking forward to working with Ms. G****** and diligently to resolve this matter. 
  Si erely, 
  
  St phe Gassner, CFLS 
  SG/as 
  
  

  Customer response

  09/21/2023

   I am rejecting this response because:

  Stephen Gassner claims he called or made contact with my witnesses. Two days prior to trial he had me meet with ***** one of his paralegals but my witnesses NEVER got subpoena or received a phone call or were interviewed by any employee from Stephen's office. My previous attorney ******************* actually did the work on my domestic case, he did a timeline and file for pictures. Stephen didn't even have to do that yet he wasn't even prepared for trial.

  I did all the work for child support and got it approced for $601 in April. Stephen claimed he could get more money and persuade me to filling out documents for child support. This is a case opened by him. 

  We came to an agreement on the domestic violence because ***** agreed to give me sole custody and pay $5,000 towards attorney fees. Its not like Stephen claims, he is changing the story to make himself look better because Stephen was unprepared for trial. On the day of trial he was unprepared and didn't have audio. When I first went to his office he sold me a different story about my case and showed off how his brother was the commissioner at the *************************** and talked about the many degrees he had yet didn't talk about how many cases he actually closes successfully. I was told there was double charge on my case that he would issue a refund as of today I have not received money or response from his office on this matter. Was I charged $10,000 for lip service and there is no documentation to prove any work done on my case? Because I can prove that he didn't talk to any of my witnesses as he claims he did.

  There was an incident that happened August 23rd, when I was threatened and intimidated by *************************** to leave the office or Stephen would call the police. I was not causing any problems all I wanted was the substitution of attorney (which he refused to sign) and my "file". I'm glad to know there is no file of work from this office but I would still like to know where the money went? On August 25th I went to Stephen's office  with ************* and I was given a file from my previous attorney and in front of the police Stephen signed the substitution of attorney. I sent emails regarding documents I needed from this office that I never received but no one ever sent me the documents or response. I only got the documents by driving to San Bernardino Court  and child support services to get them myself. I'm still missing original letters given to Stephen that he didnt give me back.

  Attorney is unethical and his behavior is unacceptable to clients. There is a lot more information  and a lot more I have to say that happened at this office and with this unprofessional attorney.

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