I came to Deer Lake with a very straight-forward case: I am the disabled solo mom (who used to be a lawyer but who currently survives on a small, fixed disability income) of a 9-year-old boy (who shares my illness and may be headed for a life of disability himself).
The father has never paid a penny in support, though his one-man business takes in well over $100,000 per year in gross profit. When I decided to sue for child support, I was unaware of the father's income because he left me when I was 2 months pregnant and I had not seen him since.
At our initial meeting, Kate Lee at Deer Lake asked for a $1500 retainer. I explained that I was using my home equity to pay the retainer. I emphasized to her the urgency of establishing at least some form of interim support as soon as possible so that I could continue to pay my family's medical expenses. She assured me that the $1500 retainer should be enough to get the ball rolling with respect to at least some interim support, and any additional retainer funds that might be required would be of a smaller denomination. I emphasized that I needed to know well ahead of time if the funds were running low.
Kate Lee proceeded to waste two months attempting to serve the father via Facebook before discovering that the father's Facebook page was blocked to non-friends. Not surprisingly, the father did not respond to any of Kate's overtures of friendship.
Three months later, I sold my house and moved to a less expensive part of of BC in order to liquidate enough assets to continue treating my family's illness. As of that date, the only thing that Deer Lake had accomplished was finding the father's place of employment by internet search and finally serving him, filing my application for child support with the court, and filing my financial statement. (I wrote my own affidavit and completed the financial statement myself.)
The two months lost to futile attempts to serve the father by Facebook will likely cost me two months of child support which, given the father's business income, would have amounted to approximately $1800, enough so that I wouldn't have had to move.
A first court appearance was scheduled for August 1 (it was now five months since I'd first met with Deer Lake). As I was no longer living in the lower mainland, I was to attend the appearance by phone. I barely slept the night before. I waited and waited by the phone all morning and into the afternoon, but the call from the court never came. Nor did Deer Lake bother calling to inform that the appearance had already happened without me.
I received an email at 2:17 pm from Kate Lee informing me that they did not ask for interim child support. In fact, ALL matters had been adjourned for SEVEN MORE WEEKS pending a paternity test-- something which I offered to pay for back in March. To Deer Lake's credit, the father was ordered by the court to pay for the test which costs around $500. However, that doesn't make up for the two months of lost support, or the lack of any interim support.
I called and emailed Deer Lake a total of 6 times times between August 2nd and August 10 to ask how to arrange for the paternity test. They finally got back to me in a terse email to tell me what I already knew-- that the father was supposed to pay for it. I got mad. I called and INSISTED I speak to their client relations person. I repeated my inquiry. She told me I needed to get a hold of the father and set the test up with him myself. I lost it. I told her that was not my job. I told her that an order should have been drafted immediately after the appearance and entered by my counsel. I asked where the order was and whether or not it had been drafted. She promised to get back to me.
Five minutes later I received Deer Lake's bill. Low and behold, all my retainer money was gone and I owed them another $150. I couldn't believe my eyes. They had billed me nearly $500 for the August 1 appearance which, according to the clerk's notes, lasted all of ten minutes and resulted in nothing but a court ordered paternity test for which Deer Lake had not even bothered to draft or enter the order, so there was no way to compel the father to actually DO it. They then BILLED me for the order which they claim to have drafted but which apparently sat on someone's desk for ten days collecting dust.
I paid the $150 I owed with my credit card and within minutes received their reply-- a demand for another $1500 retainer. I emailed them back and demanded an explanation for the overbilling, the lack of notice that my retainer was running out, and an explanation for why no motion for interim support had been filed or was even in the works. Antonio (the owner of the firm) replied to me saying that my dissatisfaction with Deer Lake was unfounded and was likely an "artifact of my illness".
If you have experienced similar difficulties of incompetence or overbilling, you should report this law firm to the Law Society and the BBB, as I am now doing. read more
