Complaint Review: E.R. Lane and Associates

I received a speeding ticket in the city of Euless recently. As it was my first time ever dealing with a speeding ticket i didn't quite know what to do, and since it occurred around the holidays it naturally slipped my mind until the day before my 30 days to plea expired. I panicked and rushed to hire an attorney quick before it expired. BIG MISTAKE. I sent out feelers to a few attorneys to see who could help and E.R. Lane and "associates" were the only ones who responded. I was in such a dilemma that i hired them to handle my case and paid them the 150.00 they said they charged. the charges were for $75 dollars apiece per ticket.

Apparently even though i gave my insurance info to the officer and it was valid he wrote me up for that also. When i hired him i asked the woman who took the payment if they were sure everything would be handled since the following day was the last day. She assured me it was no problem they would call the Euless court stating that they were requesting a hearing and were sending a letter stating the same, as long as it was post marked within the 30 days it was no problem...

Well 20 days later i get a letter from the Euless stating since i failed to appear and state my case that i now owed Euless 1200 for the 2 tickets and for failure to appear and warrants would be issued. When i got this i immediately went to the court and explained that i had hired an attorney and this had to be a mistake. She told me that they didn't hear from Mr. Lane until well after the expiration date of my ticket and once they did receive the letter (which looked like a generic letter where the previous clients info was scratched out and mine was out in) it was too late and that a bond would now need to be done.

They stated they tried to contact him 3 times (giving me times and dates) leaving messages and he would not return calls. This also seemed to be a trend with this office. Hes never in the office, doesn't return calls promptly at all or emails. So finally much later that day after repeatedly calling his office he returned my call only to say it really wasn't their fault. Why? because he normally charges $150 per ticket when you have a CDL so i technically should have paid him 300 instead of the 150 i paid. When i explained his "associate" never said anything to me about a cdl case being more when i gave her my info he said she should have.

He then told me not to worry because he could have the warrants lifted that day and get a new court date set up but I would need to pay him the other 150 before that court date. He also stated not to worry because he could get the failure to appear removed along with the bogus no insurance ticket if i emailed him a copy of my insurance card showing i had valid insurance coverage. So i told him that would be fine and i sent him my insurance card. Well i didn't hear from him about anything after that until my new court date which i was never told about. His office made no attempt to contact me about a new court date.

I did not hear from them again until they emailed me a month later the RESULTS of my court hearing i knew nothing about. It appears Mr. Lane did show up in court for me. Only all he did was sign his name to my judgement saying i agreed to pay the city 1000 over the next 4 months in 225 dollar installments. All 3 charges stood. Speeding 75 in a 60 (which i take responsibility for) No insurance (I'm guessing Mr Lane forgot my insurance info at the house during the hearing) and failure to appear (which i only got because i made the horrible decision of hiring this man). So my recommendation to anyone looking for an attorney is to do your homework.

If i had just taken a little time to research his online reviews i would have seen he has a F rating with the BBB nor is he accredited with them, hes featured on the Rip-off report website, And he had an extremely poor rating on yahoo. It seems he has pulled this same act with many people. I would also like to throw in that for every 1 star review he gets on yahoo a few days later he will get multiple 5 star reviews on the same day praising his work that sound suspiciously like commercials. So i would guess the mans also a fraud. So buyer beware, this man is an "Attorney" in title ONLY!