STAY AWAY!!!! Choose this firm & Joseph Goode, if you want the following:…read more
1) To get billed by him to "look into billing disputes/errors".
2) To be billed just to get a quote from them for services!
3) To be billed, in my opinion, outrageous fees for doing very little.
I have hired plenty of attorneys in my life and I feel Joseph Goode is the WORST attorney I have ever used! He really should change his name to Joseph BAD. My father and his partner, hired his firm for a simple litigation...I was the main point of contact dealing with him and his firm's lawyers.
I think a good lawyer would give us a quote ahead of time (for a full litigation and trial) by looking at the potential claim amount versus the legal costs. Sadly, he didn't do that. I realized as we went forward that they had no real strategy! In fact, he never asked even once about collecting on any potential judgment. Every litigator should ask their clients that even if you get a judgment, collecting on it may be an issue and it should be something they talk to you about to see if you want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to get a judgment you may never even collect. This was never done!
We asked him for a quote to research, file and serve a lawsuit and the difference between what we were billed and what we felt we were quoted for the cost, was almost double. I felt a 5 digit figure just to file a lawsuit was crazy and in fact, we were charged almost double that. When we complained to him, he charged almost $1k just to look into the billing matter! We then told him to control costs because his billings were getting out of hand. As a result, we asked for quotes on all future work and you know what he started doing...he billed us another $1,500 dollars just to give us a written quote for $300,000 for a full trial! How insane is that? And, who charges for quotes?
On top of that, he demanded that to continue working for us after we disputed his billings, he would require us to change from billing us monthly to demanding a $25k retainer which he would bill against!
We were billed hundreds of dollars just to email us that the defendants got served. I feel this firm is just out to take as much money from you as possible.
Errors I believe were made by this law firm:
1) Wrong lawsuit filing deadline.
There was conflicting information giving by him and his firm on the filing time for the lawsuit. In the lawsuit they stated "20 days" but opposing counsel pointed out it is "45 days". And for the communication we had due to their "error"... he billed us.
2) No Due Diligence.
We were suing people who didn't trust. We met at an opposing counsel's office to go through all questionable invoices and bank statements. When we set aside the documents to get copied, we agreed to get a third party to come and copy the records. Instead Joe Goode authorized the same party we are suing to make copies of the questionable records! Does that make any sense?? So foolish and when I called him out on it, he told me I was wrong. That is his behavior...to blame you for his mistakes!
3) Scrivener's Error?
He did a prior agreement for us and in one of the most important sections of the contract, he put the wrong parties name! When I called him out on that...he explained that away as a Scrivener's Error!
4) Not including a Breach of Specific Contract Claim in the lawsuit, which is one of our strongest claims.
Also, one of our strongest claims against the opposing party, we told him to include in the lawsuit but he never did!
And his partner, Mark Leitner is who wrote to me to settle the financial matter, refused to admit any wrongdoing and refused to discuss the "errors" I pointed out.
Trust me, you will want to avoid these clowns and this whole law firm altogether. Virtually every other attorney I interviewed when finding a new law firm, never even heard of this firm or the lawyers.
If you can tell, I was trying to be civil but I feel he has a real offensive and truly abrasive personality. If you can be mean and fight with your own client who is paying you, how bad do you think his judgment is?
Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY!