Mulled this one over as to how I should approach this, but I've bit my tongue for far too long.
I've known Zhana and Metis Law group for around now 3 years, and in recent discoveries, it has come to my attention how completely mishandled my case was -- but only in hindsight.
I will tackle 3 corners of legal blunders of sorts:
Incompetence
Unprofessionalism
Unethical practice
Allow me to explain:
Incompetence:
Zhana failed to know that my apartment was under rent control. That is literally an establishing baseline procedure to determine not only how to approach any sorta litigation, but also extremely useful come time for settlement negotiation. For such a seasoned attorney she claims to be, I don't understand how should could fail something so fundamental. Boggles my mind. When confronting her on the issue, she deflected; passing it off with doing me a solid 'no good deed goes unpunished' instead of taking any sorta responsibility. This would be like a proclaimed scientist unable to point out Hydrogen on the periodic table. This would be like a personal injury attorney settling a case before retaining the at-fault parties insurance.
Doesn't know important aspects of the law. She was blissfully ignorant in the procedures for a no-fault eviction, especially in the necessary right of return paperwork that must be filled 30 days onset of displacement. For someone who advertises as a tenant and eviction attorney, that's 50 percent true. Get this, she claimed ignorance for the law. 'How do I know what the state law is?' I'm representing you on habitability only. Yeah. Okay. But in this case they were kinda conjoined as one followed the other. Any reasonable/competent attorney would have been able to properly counsel on this issue.
And if the previous was bad, this was worse. Possibly malpractice.
Unprofessionalism: I suspect the incompetency is an outgrowth of caseload mismanagement. This is pure speculation, but I think her firm takes in way too many clients per year and they're legally spread thin.
Why do I believe that?
In many instances, it takes an absurd amount of time to respond to clients email. In a couple of instances, it took over 20 days time specifically for me. In other instances, the emails were just ignored completely.
Unethical practice: In the late early to middle stages of my case, Zhana emailed me demanding i email questions less frequently.This wasn't an informal request, she literally wanted me to sign it as if it's a legally binding contract. Who does this?
This was grotesque and inappropriate.
But you know what else is inappropriate? Her firm not doing their due-diligence/homework and knowing my unit was under rent-control. Maybe I didn't email enough questions apparently.
In light of all the f-ups, plus the fact I was irreputably damaged as a result of her incompetence, the 45 percent take from my settlement is borderline usury.
Zhana, if you're reading this, I am filing a bar complaint. Your dismissive attitude and snide remarks I shall not forget . read more