I began a client-lawyer relationship with Joel Campbell in November 2015. I thought my case was a pretty straightforward Trust dispute. In July 2018 I terminated our relationship and retained another lawyer. There were two primary reasons for this decision; The first was his lack of billing in a timely manner, his not being transparent in his billing and not providing billing statements when I requested them. The second was that he didn't seem to have a direction in mind and much time was spent reviewing and re-reviewing the same material.
Although Mr. Campbell wrote that he would send me an engagement letter, he never did and when I began getting bills they did not include hours, only activity and amounts so I didn't even know what his hourly rate was or have a way to cross check his statement with my records of our phone calls. I moved in June 2017 and sent a change of address to Mr. Campbell requesting that invoices be sent to the new address. It was apparently not noted and I stopped receiving any statements at all. So in April, in May and in June of 2018 I requested, via email, updated statements. In spite of my multiple written requests, I did not receive an updated statement until July 2018, a full year later.
After more than two years, I felt that Mr. Campbell still didn't have a clear understanding of the case. We spent hours on the phone and sent several lengthy emails back and forth about what to ask in the deposition, Mr. Campbell suggested we both write out our list of questions and compare them. I responded that I had already given him the questions I might ask and that I thought he should have enough information write up the list. Later I received a list of random and rambling cut and paste questions and statements from standard templates and from my emails. One of the questions was this beauty (remember this is a trust case and I was never married to the defendant), "Identify the location and contents of any safety deposit boxes, vaults, safes or other places of deposit and safekeeping in which you deposited any money, documents or other items of personal property and/or value during the MARRIAGE". (Caps mine). Nor were either of the two questions I deemed important included.
I terminated the relationship at that point.
I had had no prior experience with a lawsuit and honestly didn't know what to expect from a lawyer or I would undoubtedly have acted sooner. With regard to the billing problems, I don't know if they were caused by the office staff by Mr. Campbell himself. read more
