Poor scheduling up front by his admin. The initial call with Patrick to update our trust was not good and the lack of preparation on his end for our discussion was obvious. We decided to use someone else. After I made my review I read the others, i am glad I made the decision. Not to use him. read more

First, don't be mistaken, the only reason I'm giving one star is because I don't have the option of less than that. First instance, zero stars or better yet, negative stars. Two years ago, both of my sisters took my mother to Patrick Smith's Clearwater office and had him create a Trust and Will. He was very friendly and helped them set everything up. His paperwork even said he would be there for all his clients needs. Now, two years later, my mother is not doing well and it occurred to us that we had not put her house in her trust. I called Patrick's office on Friday, November 1st , 2024 to find out what I needed to do to get her house put in the trust. His secretary told me he would call me back that same day or the following Monday. He didn't. I called again on Friday, November 8th and again was told he would call me that day or the following Monday. He didn't. I called again on November 13th, 15th, 18th and 20th and received no return calls. I also emailed him on November 19th. You guessed it....no return email. Unless you just enjoy beating your head against the wall and getting nothing in return, my advice is to avoid Patrick Smith and find a real attorney. Patrick Smith is a fraud. read more

I recently had a bad experience with this attorney. My Mom needed a certified copy of my Dad's will in order to transfer something from my Dad's name to hers. We thought she could get it from her attorney who did their will/trust. We brought paperwork with us and showed it to Mr Smith. The whole time I was asking him questions he oddly refused to make eye contact with me and only addressed my mother. He gave us some bs line about needing to file a document with the courts in order to get what we need and it would be $4500. I was furious as the total amount involved was only $7000. She would only end up with $2500. I said forget it and we left. Not being one to give up I started googling and making phone calls and it turns out all we had to do was deposit his will with the courts and they gave us a certified copy of the will FREE OF CHARGE. We were able to proceed and got everything transferred to my Mom's name. This guy was looking to rip off my Mom in no uncertain terms. If you want to save yourself time, money and aggravation stay far away from this schmuck. We will be looking for a new attorney to handle Mom's trust. read more

I'm very unhappy with this attorney and his follow up. I had wills drawn up back in 2017 and when I called the office they had no record of my will or even being a client. They gladly accepted my money but then forgot all about me and my husband. Shame on Patrick Smith and his whole office. read more

I am writing this review to hopefully save someone and their family for what happens AFTER he drafts up your will and when you actually need to use Patrick Smith to carry out said will once someone has passed. To give a background both my parents worked at Disney and found Patrick Smith on the Disney website that suggestion lawyers and people that are in network. They found Patrick in Clermont years ago in 2015 and remember them saying he was super helpful, knowledgeable and nice up front when drafting up their will. Unfortunately, our dad passed away in 2020 and mom unexpectedly in 2023, we called Patrick Smith to help with the legal proceedings and settling their affairs. To start, his office and secretary really need a class on common respect and basic customer service. I would love to tell you her name but she never gave it, gave her condolences and just flat out rude. When we FINALLY were able to have a quick 15 min phone call with Patrick about next steps and talk about what to do and answer our questions (we are all in our early 30's and have never had to do this so we weren't sure what to expect) he never gave his condolences, felt very rushed off the phone and annoyed he was even talking to us and just talked about his fees $4500 base fee plus court fees and 3% of whatever is in the estate to settle. He also said it would take about a year! This is when his secretary sent us an email addressed in our dead mother's name outlining all this. This rubbed my sisters and I the wrong way! Again, this whole practice has no empathy for the family period. We began asking friends around town about Patrick and reading reviews. The consensus we got wasn't a good one. He is a snake and only cares about himself and money. He will drag out any legal proceedings and drain as much money out of the estate as he can. He will be nice upfront but when it comes time to actually doing the work he's a lazy money hungry lawyer. The one thing we are very grateful for is our parents DID NOT set him as executor of the will or access to execute the will "to help out" the family after the lost loved one. Please for your family sake do not do this your family, they will never get any money you planned to leave for them. In our case, we had all got a bad vibe from him and his office along with the communities responses which makes me laugh his website says "peace of mind business and every family matters" we decided to go with another lawyer. Our new lawyer charged a flat $4000 and no court or percentage taken out of the estate. It has also taken him 4 months which Patrick said would take him a year! The new lawyer was so empathetic about our situation and went above and beyond to help us out. When filing my parents will he did need Patrick Smith to sign an addendum and tried reaching out to his office almost everyday for 3 weeks and got the same rude secretary, if they answered, and never heard from Patrick or got the form he needed. He even told us Patrick is one of the most difficult lawyers and rudest staff he has ever dealt with in his 25 years of practice. Even though our experience was short with Patrick Smith we instantly got a bad money hungry vibe from him and his rude office staff. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you care about your family and children do not use Patrick Smith for Estate planning and drafting your will! There are a lot better lawyers out there read more

I've worked with Attorney Patrick Smith for years. He's one of the smartest lawyers and kind hearted people I've ver met. His knowledge and experience is beyond many others in his field. Highly recommend without reservation. read more

This guy is slick Smith. I think he is a car salesman on the side. Took us for $1285.00 for up dating a revocable trust. I tried to get him to hold up and let us do some price checking but no way was he going to let that happen. He said the work was done....in one day ? Think you can trust a lawyer??? Not this one!! He gave us a draft of what he had done, took it to another lawyer and she was shocked as to the lack of proper verbiage in the documents. thank god we didn't go with his documents but he didn't refund the money either. Even though we notified him the next day we wanted look some more. Take my advise and stay away from this guy. Wish I would have seen this site before I got involved with this guy!!!! read more

You won't find an attorney with more integrity than Patrick Smith or more responsive. He is fiercely protective of his clients and strictly adherent to the FL Bar's Code of Ethics. read more

Patrick and his team are nothing but money scheming frauds. Our family went to him out of trust and they tried to scheme us out of $15,000 from the estate. He was trying to take a percentage of our fathers homesteaded property which is exempt from probate anyway and was valuing 50% of the entire value of the home since it's co-owned with our fathers girlfriend and trying to take his percent from that half of value vs what were actually getting which is only $70k in equity (which is excluded from probate anyway as it's homesteaded) yet he's basing his percent off $500,000? Hence, money WE aren't even receiving. He was basing his percentage off of a mortgage loan from the bank...What a joke! He argued with us that it's not. They took FOREVER to respond to our inquiries and when they did it was one word sarcastic responses. Very unprofessional team and highly unsatisfied with their services. Since he didn't agree with it about not dipping into the house at a value far exceeding what we're even receiving and was taking to long with the process...we decided to fire him as our attorney and hired someone else to finish the job. He still took our $3500 non refundable deposit plus an addition $400 for pretty much doing nothing. In the few months we hired him all he did was file for motion with the court. Our new attorney finished the job plus more and only charged us $1500 in total and got the home exempt from probate as they so knowledgeably told us we couldn't! They do not care about your best interest only what's best for their pockets. Stay away from them. Much better probate attorneys out there that will do what's in your best interest and not lie to you and try to take money they don't have any right to! I'm disgusted that they would lie through their teeth and try and take advantage of a grieving family for more money than they should have. We had to start all over from scratch with new attorney but they still got done way faster and charged $1,500 vs the $15,000 Patrick and his team wanted! SO glad we made the choice to fire him and not let him continue to rip off our family. Considering filing a complaint with the bar as well. Lots of hidden fees in his contracts beware Our personal injury attorney also had our insurance check sent to his office in hopes he would reimburse us our deposit that he so kindly took his additional funds from as well before returning to us far later than he should have on top of keeping the entire deposit. After hiring Patrick and his team we didn't hear back from them for months. He ended up making more than double than the other attorney did who did all of the actual work and did it in our best interest. Christi McCullars is AMAZING! Look into her before these frauds! read more

My family used Patrick and his firm to file a simple probate for my father's estate...should have only taken a couple of months, three at the most. After two month Patrick abandon us, took our money, and did practically nothing in filing the probate with the courts or contacting creditors. He left the judge hanging, who wanted more information from him in order to sign off on the summary administration and complete the process. No response from Patrick, no performance from Patrick, no caring from Patrick. Had to contract with another lawyer to complete our probate. Patrick cost us wasted time and thousands of dollars. Would not recommend him for anything if you are looking for results. read more

Notice all the horrible reviews??? With all good reasons! Stay away from this money hungry unprofessional sarcastic arrogant actor! After seeing in black and white exactly what my aunt wanted done as far as being added to the home that we shared for over 12 yrs, besides knowing and loving her as my aunt for many more years than that, im a disabled 67 yr.old that had cashed in a CD i had to start work on house, showed him all signed papers of a loan that we both were going in on together, sadly the day it was in underwritting, she had a massive cerebral hemorrhage . This man never had a kind word to speak, or would at least help me get done what she had intended, she loved all animals and had quite a few left that when i was asked to get out, couldnt find homes for all of them and i couldnt rent a place with all of them, still bothers me to this day that all her animals had to be removed from premises, i tried to explain how it would be killing her to do this and not let me care for them in her home. JUST a very cold with no empathy response, I had to leave most everything i owned because he wanted me out to make his $$, The house sold for over $500k, whatever didnt go into PS pocket ,went to charity that her father had set up long ago before we haf lived together,she had mentioned that tp loan officer how she needed to change her will, but their advice was to wait till we signed final paperworks, when it would be in my name too. We even planned on paying each other back out of the loan for any expenses towards the home, like the $5,000 that came out of that CD i cashed so barkey had money to move out, still living out of hotels, its been over 2 yrs. Like i mentioned could afford movers and storage for my things. Hope this helps anybody else in the Future. I am a christian a nd believe theres got to be some kind of karma for this very cold person whos messed up alot of good peoples lifes because of his GREED. EVEN though we werent blood related, my aunt lived with her for over 30 yrs. She had passed 2 yrs before. My family was her only family,,she had been adopted. Please be safe and God bless. Dawn Xrdawn@aol.com read more

Patrick has been our attorney for 9 years and on a scale of 1 to 10 he's been an 11. Patrick not only has set up our wills, trusts and other legal estate issues but he has met to consult with us on personal business matters. Patrick always takes the time to thoroughly address all of our questions with comprehensive answers in addition to making valuable referrals when necessary. I'd never consider using another attorney for our legal needs! Paul Wilks Clermont, Florida 34711 read more

Mr. Smith is a compassionate, responsive and knowledgeable attorney. He has helped my family with several matters. Our questions are answered promptly in terms we can understand. Mr. Smith is extremely talented and I would highly recommend him. read more

Patrick has been our Lawyer for 9 years. We found him very knowledgeable and caring during the process of sitting up a Will, Trust, Power of Attorney etc. He has helped us with a variety of issues over the past years and has been a real support to our family at all times. We would highly recommend Patrick Smith. read more

Waited nearly 3 weeks to file trust paperwork. Office ignores correspondence. Very unprofessional in consultation. Not sure what his legal fees are for. Service less than half what he's worth. Would highly recommend looking elsewhere unless this is standard for central Florida. read more

This attorney has spent 3 years delaying and lying about what he was doing with the 2 family trusts. He lied about getting paperwork done, Refused to return phone calls and emails, and cost the trusts well over 100,000. He is being reported to the BAR and hopefully will be prosecuted. read more

If you are looking for low cost attorney to do your trust Patrick Smith is the type of attorney who can forfill this. I had a trust prepared by him in the past. In my opinion he is a "rush" attorney who don't have the time for his clients. You get what you pay for. A trust is a very complex process and one needs a great relationship with their attorney and that they are miticulus in execution of documents and understanding their clients. I'm in my 70's and feel he is no longer my type of attorney for my trust for many reasons. Again if you want a low cost fast pace trust attorney he might be for you. read more

Do yourself a favor and find a new attorney. Mr. Smith is arrogate, dishonest and disrespectful. Mistakes from start to finish and wants one to pay for his mistakes. Had to find a new attorney to cleanup his mistakes. read more

I was very satisfied with the results I got because of Patrick's knowledge and professionalism. Thank you again.

Terrible terrible time working with pat smith. Bought a house two years ago, unorganized and very unsettling. Had to SELL my house and coincidently used the same lawyers office (buyers used the same one) and come to find out missing paperwork...deed was for a different property not even where I was living...all from the first transaction! Then after picking from the pie, I could not make the final closing so I had pat smith sign paperwork regarding extra forms possibly...NOT THE FINAL CLOSING NUMBERS. Off by $600 and reworded on the closing it doesn't show where money went. And now finally a terrible experience yet again, I received my mortgage check from the PAID OFF company and my MIL insurance was never paid. And once everyone got paid, on a Friday, pay went on vacation and the other two lawyer didn't get back to me until Tuesday. So I had someone move into my house, everyone else made $$$ and I was left stranded until Tuesday. On the other hand Jaime at the front desk was very helpful and by far should not be working at such a low standard place. read more