Complaint Review: Attorney Joan Hurkett

I have contacted the Better Business Bureau and the Massachusetts Bar Association and have received no assistance.  Here is the outrageous tackics this "Lawyer" used to steal from me.

Attorney Joan Hurket represented me in a divorce from November 8, 2007 to May 7, 2008.  On that date, she informed me my riginal $3500.00 retainer was exhausted, I had a "balance due' of $510.00, and I needed to provide her an additional $2500.00 for her to continue representing me.

I informed her I was disabled, waiting for disability payments to begin and had no money to give her.  I told her I would try to sell the only asset I had, pay the $510.00 balance, and see if I had the money to give her $2500.00 after that.

From May 7th to October 15th, 2008, I was unable to sell the asset and therefore represented myself in court and with communications during this time.  Attorney Hirkett sent the judge a formal withdrawal of herself as my attrney, and each month sent me statements showing my $510.00 balance, and even wrote me in September stating, "please remit $510.00 to clear up (my) balance with (her) office."

Finally, on October 23rd I paid the $510.00 balance PLUS gave her the additional $2500.00 to represent me at the trial on November 5th.  She stated that she could not be there on such short notice, and said to call the other attorney and ask for a continuance.  I placed my trust in her and told her to hang on to the $2500.00 so she could represent me when the new trial was scheduled.

The other attorney did not return my calls, so I went into the trial intending to ask the judge for the continuance.  The other attorney objected, since there had been several already, and the judge agreed and I was forced to represent myself at the trial.  I was completely accosted and destroyed by her attorney, as I had no idea what I was doing, and eventually lost everything in the divorce.

The next day, (Nov 6th) I emailed attorney Hurkett, informing her of what happened, and asked for my $2500.00 retainer back.  She held me off from then until December 22, 2008, when she sent me a check that was short $1210.00, and sent a "new" statement itemizing legal services she supposedly provided in May, June, July, August, September and October, during the time she had formally withdrawn and no longer represented me!!  Yet even as late as December, when she informed me she was sending my check "soon", she reminded me that my previous balance due was $510.00!  And she did it in writing.

Joan Hurkett crookedly "created" a false statement of an additional $1210.00 to a disabled man who sold his car in order to pay for a divorce attorney that did NOTHING for him!  She fradulently did this to grab as much of my retainer as she could get her sleazy hands on.  I lost everything in this divorce due to her tricks, and attorney Hurkett betrayed my trust in attorneys by blatently stealing from me! 

However, I have all the douments in black & white showing her forgery of these non-existent charges.  How can I MAKE this woman give me my money back?  Suggestions?  Consumer agencies? Legal help to sue for the money, and lack of counsel in my divorce?  Thank you.