I'm using my wife's yelp account to write this review:
We hired Attorney Vaughn-Martel after a civil lawsuit was filed against me by an ex-girlfriend over ownership rights to a vehicle I had solely purchased during a 4+ year relationship. An injunction/ court order was filed against me stating I was not to sell the vehicle until the case was heard before a judge. We hired Vaughn-Martel in hopes that he'd be able to assist in getting the court order lifted or get the case settled as quickly as possible as I was unable to afford payments on the vehicle and needed to sell it ASAP.
After several months of negotiations between Vaughn-Martel and the plaintiff's attorney a Settlement Agreement was drafted by Vaughn-Martel's office and was forwarded to me for review and signature. I stated the Agreement was to my liking and was told that the Agreement would be sent out AS IS to the Plaintiff followed by me for signatures. Problems arose when I found out that after I had approved what I thought to be the FINAL draft of the Settlement Agreement that the Plaintiff's attorney had asked that a few changes be made and Attorney Vaughn-Martel's office to it upon themselves to make these changes without my knowledge, consent or even a discussion of such. When I contacted Attorney Vaughn-Martel to indicate my disproval of such changes I was told that there was nothing they could do to change the Agreement back as the revised Agreement had already been mailed out to the Plaintiff for signature. I was beyond irate at this point.
To make matters worse, the Plaintiff was never able to obtain financing in order to follow through on the terms of the Settlement Agreement by purchasing the vehicle to pay off my loan (which I couldn't afford to pay and faced repossession of) and to compensate me for monies she had stolen via check fraud / forgery. After the Plaintiff had breached the Agreement by not coming up with the funds within the allotted time frame as per the Agreement terms, I was advised by Attorney Vaughn-Martel that selling the vehicle, paying off the loan and keeping the balance of the agreed upon sales amount for myself would be a "viable solution to complying with the agreement, getting rid of the car, and getting settlement funds, all in a way that protects (my) interests in the event (I) had to go in front of a judge." I followed my attorneys exact advice and sold the vehicle 2 days prior to the date it was to be repossessed. When I got in front of the judge though I was found in contempt of court for going against the imposed court order not to sell the vehicle. Attorney Vaughn-Martel never once stated that he had advised me to do such nor did he defend me in any sense of the word. He never tried to state facts and in no way stood up for me. He seemed to have no idea what to say in court and came across as being completely unprepared, incompetent, unprofessional and unknowledgeable of how to defend a client. He let me hang out to dry and when I confronted him prior to the next hearing for my punishment in front of the judge he totally denied ever having advised me to go against the court order. I even showed him his own email to me stating his advice and he still insisted he never advised such. He proceeded to state that it would be in my best interest to allow the civil case against me along with my counterclaims against her for stolen monies be dismissed as per the Plaintiff's request or the judge could punish me by making me pay her money for selling the car. I felt as though I was being coerced into settling the case because my attorney didn't want to have to explain himself to the judge as to why he advised his client to go against a court order. Due to being in fear of what the judge might fine/punish me with and knowing I had no more money and no real counsel on my side to defend me, I went against my rights, instincts and better judgement by agreeing to allow the case to be dismissed.
I ended up with nothing more than destroyed credit & added debt due to racking up more than $6k in legal fees.....an amount far in excess of what Vaughn-Martel Law ever truly earned or deserved read more