ComplaintsforRhodes Walls Law Office, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  08/08/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired ********************** Walls as a recommendation by a friend when the noncustodial parent of my children sued for custody. Ive had to remind Ms. ********************** of my situation every time we spoke. Many times, Ms. ********************** called me in the late evening after normal business hours to discuss aspects of the case. She put me on hold one time to order her food at a drive through. Tonight on 8/8/2022 at 8:56pm, I was notified via text that I had a court date tomorrow morning at 9:30 am with no other information. When I called Ms. ********************** she became very combative and hung up on me after several minutes. I attempted to call back and text and she blocked me as seen in my photos. I paid her to do a job and she had not kept up with what we have discussed. I have no notice of where Im supposed to appear tomorrow, nor do I know whats supposed to happen. See my photos attached of her portal with no information regarding any court date on 8/9/2022. Im seeking a full refund for my retainer paid, as she has failed to render services paid. Video of screen recording logging into the client portal available as well immediately after I was told by Ms. ********************** the information had been in the portal for weeks,

  Business response

  08/17/2022

  I represented **************** in defending a legitimation, custody and visitation case whereby the father was seeking legitimation and to exercise his visitation rights. I represented **************** diligently and effectively from the beginning of this litigation to the end of my representation.   **************** is not the only case my office has.  If there are no updates, it was because there was no movement in her case.  When we received an update, she was informed. 

  All updates were not provided in writing on MyCase because they were verbally expressed at times.  Further, my paralegal is always available, if she were to call the office phone during business hours to provide updates.  As an attorney, I am often in depositions, mediations, hearings or appointments.  Hence why I pay for a paralegal to provide updates to clients.  If the written updates through MyCase were too slow or not as often as **************** liked, **************** could have, and should have called the office number and my paralegal would have updated her on her case.  My paralegal had expressed to **************** that if she did not hear from us, there were no updates to provide. 

  During COVID the Court moved extremely slow, her case, as a result, as were all cases, affected by the slow movement and the updates consequently were not frequent.  My paralegal updated **************** when there was movement in her case.  ***** times, months would pass with no updates because there was no movement from Plaintiff nor the courts during this time.  Again, **************** repeatedly reminded my office that she was in "no rush".  There was no substantial delay in communication and her case was not negatively impacted in any way by any action or inaction on my part.  **************** provided insufficient evidence to support her position that I mishandled her case or failed to provide her with updates.   

  **************** paid a retainer that is billed out hourly, there are no refunds given for any funds billed out.  If there is a remaining retainer after my representation ends, she will receive the balance as is clearly stated in the fee agreement.  This complaint was not filed until she realized she would not receive a full refund of attorney fees and after I filed a Withdrawal as counsel, this is nothing short of an act of retaliation in hopes that I will provide her with a full refund after working this case since September 2021. 

  There was a glitch experienced in MyCase when it came to uploading the hearing notice, whereby it failed to share with *****************  While, I understand her frustration with this unforeseen error; I however, spoke in great length with **************** over the phone giving her an update on what occurred during the status hearing along with attempting to reach a resolution with opposing party for over an hour.  The status hearing is a hearing where clients do not need to appear, only the attorneys, and the attorneys update the Judge on where the case currently stands.  There was no appearance made by opposing party, who at the time represented himself and immediately after the status hearing, on my drive home, I updated **************** on what had occurred and informed her of the new final hearing date.  The court scheduled **************** case for a final hearing date on August 9, 2022. 

  At the final hearing court found an error the clerk's office made in closing the case upon **********'s request when there was a pending counterclaim.  Therefore, despite the unforeseen error that occurred in the system of not being shared with ****************, **************** did receive notice of the final hearing date. This case was continued at the final hearing on August 9th because the Court mistakenly closed this case and I had to prepare an order to reopen the case all of which gives **************** time to retain counsel. 

   The Order permitting my withdraw is expected to be signed by the Judge on August 19th.  THERE HAS BEEN NO HARM CAUSED TO ****************, THE **** HAS MOVED, AS ALL ****S HAVE, SLOWLY DURING COVID; AND UPDATES WERE PROVIDED WHEN WE RECEIVED MOVEMENT ON THE ****.  IF THE UPDATES WERE NOT IN WRITING, THEY WERE PROVIDED BY MY PARALEGAL OR MYSELF OVER THE PHONE. 

  The court has yet to reset the final hearing date.  The Judge is aware of this entire incident and agrees that I need to immediately withdraw from this case due to **************** threats of filing a complaint against me.  There is a clear conflict of interest that **************** has created with her threats of filing a complaint with the Georgia Bar.  However, the Georgia Bar requires you to immediately withdraw once a conflict of interest arise.   

  It's rare where I have to block a client from my personal cell phone; however, in order to get **************** from continuing to call and text my personal cell phone after hours (I text her at 8:56 pm and **************** stopped at approximately 10:00 pm. only because I blocked her).  I had to block all calls from her to my personal phone.  I informed her the night prior to the hearing that I was with my family.  Meaning, not alone to discuss her case in confidence.  **************** responded with "You started this conversation regarding a court case and now you are not answering because you are with your family?... Text me the court room number Now...I'll be there so I can file a complaint with the bar association. what room, what room, what room."  The information was emailed to **************** that night that included the court room number.  Yet **************** did not show up for her own hearing. 

  The office phone has always been open and available for **************** to call if she had any questions or concerns about her case, and she did not make ANY calls until December 2021 and July 2022.  All calls were answered and returned within a reasonable period of time when she reached out to the office.

  Being an attorney does not mean you must accept disrespect from your client.  **************** paid for my service and my service was adequately rendered.  **************** does not own me, I will never tolerate any disrespect from any person, and I most definitely do not owe **************** any duty to make myself available after business hours.  I respectfully informed **************** that she needs to find another attorney to represent her, and that I was withdrawing from her case. 

  Ms. ************;complaint is substantially groundless, the evidence that she chose to provide shows communication through MyCase on a case that had extremely slow movement as the Defendant.  My retainer agreement is thorough, and **************** is billed per hour of work performed on the case as she agreed to in the retainer agreement.  Service rendered is my TIME in spent on this case and not her satisfaction of the final resolution of the case.  

  I have attached all evidence showing that I rendered professional service and once she began threatening law suites, I respectfully withdrew.  This is nothing but a desperate attempt by **************** to gain a refund of the attorney fees paid and use this complaint as leverage in filing a bar complaint; that I am certain will be found unsubstantiated. 

  I pray **************** can focus on moving her case forward, her children and a reasonable visitation schedule, and find an attorney that will be available to respond on her time and not on theirs.

  Respectfully,

  ******* Rhodes Walls, Esq.

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