Complaint Review: Glen S. Fleetwood

Everything in this statement is stated to the best of my knowledge

I paid Glen Fleetwood $5,000 to represent me in a DUI case. His retainer stated that "

1. Services to be performed by Attorney(s).  Client wishes to attorney to fully litigate the matter, but has not retained attorney for trial.  The fee for the case is $5,000.00 (Five Thousand Dollars).  The fee covers court arraignment, and future court hearings such as pretrials and, motions to suppress  This also covers the DMV Hearing scheduled by attorney for March 2, 2011, or any later date if the matter is continued "

 Glen was happy to take the money over the phone. This was the LAST time that I was able to get him on the phone. Our relationship started off rocky and he was very stand offish. I had an issue paying my "expert witness" and asked if he could pay him and I pay him via credit card (which any normal businessman would do for a customer that paid them $5,000 for services) and he told me I needed to take responsibility for my own things. I then asked him what I paid him for. This led to escalation about whose responsibility things were. Basically Glen likes to take your money and do the least amount of work he can do. Feeling bullied, I then reached out to a friend who is an attorney. When I asked for a copy of my complaint, Glen did not respond to any emails or calls for a few days and claimed there was a holiday. He then came back and sent an email that started a sentence with the word "Meth" randomly and told me it was time for me to "go back to NA/rehab" after giving me a course on manners. Apparently starting a sentence with "I need" is not acceptable. It should start with "Please" and end with "Thank you". I must have been confused thinking that paying $5,000 would give me some rights to ask for documents....................... I stayed calm and replied with "You have sent me 3 attachments via email. None are what I requested. And what is this bullshit about NA/Rehab?? Is this how you talk to all your custors?" to which he replied with a few sentences, one being: "Pick up your file. Put down the pipe." I then asked for a portion of my retainer. Notice that I said a PORTION. He had chosen to breach the contract at this point, and I only wanted a partial of what I was owed. At this poiint we were still in pretrial. Glen was at 6 court dates total. There werre 13 more court dates to follow which I had another honest lawyer handle for me.

While trying to recoup the money lost, Glen decided to send the final documents in my file with a nice little message:

"After reading these, and you hopefully seeing the work that I have done trying to defend you, you may realize you have shot yourself in the foot by (1) lying to me (not about the case, I don't care), but about the fee, the registration, (2) violating our agreement as expressed in Do's and Don'ts, and (3) generally showing the disrespect common to someone too messed up to realize another person is TRYING TO HELP THEM.

NA is the answer."

Bear in mind that at this point in time, Glen and I had never met face to face, had spoken on the phone once, and had ONLY spoken via email... I was coaching high school wrestling at this time as well as running my own business, BUT apparently I was also smoking crack..? 

At my next court date, Glen had someone else there for him, and assumed that I would allow him to be relieved as counsel (with no refund) which I protested. The judge then made him drive down to court to represent himself. Upon leaving the court room, I followed him and asked about getting a refund, to which he ignored me. I did not raise my voice, I did not curse, and I did not threathen him. He then said he would count to 10 and if I did not leave he would have me arrested. He then brought a bailiff out and I left. When he filed his motion to be relieved as counsel, he noted that I had made threats of a violent nature and that I had begun stalking him. This is a man that I had met once. There were also OBVIOUS signs of this being some kind of a template motion to be relieved. He referred to me as she multiple times and had details about a different case in it. It would not surprise me if he used this as some blanket motion whenever he wants to get out of a case.

I took him to small claims (HUGE MISTAKE, Losing this cost me the ability to go to fee arbitration) and won a judgment. He was then able to appeal the judgmenet and won. Apparently there is a law that allows him to charge a reasonable hourly rate ($350/hour for a MORON) and he can keep up to my retainer. The judge allowed him to keep it all. In my opinion this law has to be meant to protect an attorney from being fired and not getting paid, not from quitting and stealing?

After the final small claims case, Glen had the nerve to send me the following email:

"With me winning and you losing.    I had 32 $100 bills in my pocket if you had come off the $4000.  Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered.   I bought a new Jacuzzi 8 person Spa at Home Depot on the way home, with "your" money.   Have a GREAT MEMORIAL DAY,"

To which I replied "That is fine. I still have a business, a life, friends, and a good reputation. Enjoy the money because at the end of the day, you have nothing else."

 and he retorted

"what I don't have is a meth problem that makes me turn down $3200 and get zero!!!

 My family will toast you tonight! Dom!"

I included a lot of dialogue between to demonstrate the LACK of professionalism he displays. He is an embarrassment and a terrible lawyer.