Complaint Review: Steven Grayson

I found Mr. Steven Grayson via his daily postings to the Legal section on Craigslist in September, 2015.  He was prompt about returning phone calls the same day and readily available on short notice for meetings at his favorite daily watering hole, a bar & restaurant in West Los Angeles.

He regaled me with stories about his conquests of the Federal court system and teary-eyed tales about the many poor and downtrodden for whom he had written letters which freed wrongly-jailed prisoners, etc....

He brought a file folder with him to our personal meetings filled with various pages of the many legal documents I shared with him in determining how his services would help me regarding my factual innocence, fruadulent liens on two of my parents's homes from an unscruplpus bail bondsman, and harrassment from the probation department at the directoin of the DA's office in an effort to pressure me into withdrawing from the legal battle to have my case overturned based on my factual innocence and railroading by my retained attorneys, DA, judge, etc...

Despite explaining and demonstrating my strained financial situation, Mr. Grayson demanded fees that were substantially higher than any of the alleged prior clients of his for whom he had woven grand tales about how his letters saved the day for them.  I made it clear that I would need to make installment payments and he did not appear to object.  Mr. Grayson also repeatedly emphasized that I could phone him at any time seven days a week with any questions or concerns and that he would consistently promptly return any and all phone calls from me or my mother or father.

When I followed up with him after not hearing anything for almost two weeks, without any prior verbal or written notice, he abruptly advised me that he would do absolutely nothing for me until he had been paid in full - despite all of his prior lofty talk about how he believed in me, knew I had been railroaded, and wanted to help me immediately.

My father knew the difficult time I faced trying to keep my own head above water and pay the exorbitant fees demanded by Mr. Grayson; consequently, my father obtained a loan and gave me the funds to pay Mr. Grayson in full which I personally delivered to Mr. Grayson in late October, 2015.

Finally, during Thanksgiving week, 2015, Mr. Grayson ghostwrote a letter for my father addressed to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.  regarding some of the harrassment issues with the Los Angeles County probation department.  

This letter from Mr. Grayson only appeared to produce more game-playing by the probation department.  

It was only after I took the initiative to write my own letter to a probation employee did they finally release my laptop computer which they had wrongfully confiscated six months prior.

As I documented to Mr. Grayson in detailed email correpondence, his DOJ letter only seemed to make matters worse for me with probation when I had in fact paid him to help stop the probation department harrassment.  When I pressed for a response about his specific next steps and the related timeline, he repeatedly ducked, dodged, and evaded me as evidenced by his email responses which I have on file.

Regarding the fraudulent liens by the bail bondsman, Mr. Grayson had initiallly told me during one of our in-person meetings that he intended to call in a favor with an attorney sitting at the bar in the restaurant that day to have that attorney sue the bail bondsman.  Later, Mr. Grayson changed his tune and stated that he would contact the bondsman.

Mr. Grayson claims to have initiated contact with the bondsman during mid-December, 2015.  At which time, Mr. Grayson claimed that I needed to give the bondsman authorization to release my case file to Mr. Grayson.  

I promptly drafted and signed a Power of Attorney empowering Mr. Grayson to obtain the file from the bondsman.  Another two or three weeks passed with Mr. Grayson finally saying that the bondsman supposedly told him some story - whcih I now know to be false - about me having to go to court to have a judge order the bondsman to release the file because I am on probation.  Mr. Grayson stated that he would draft the necessary legal forms and forward them to me for filing with the court.

Again, via emails I have on file, Mr. Grayson began to duck, dodge, and evade this matter and refused to provide a specific date by which he would provide the legal documents needed.  After another two or three weeks, Mr. Grayson abruptly changed course by reporting, via email, that he was again in talks with the bail bondsman's office and to please give him time to work the matter out about obtaining my file from the bondsman.

During the first week of February, 2016, Mr. Grayson sent me an email stating that I needed to visit the bail bond office unannounced and that a specific member of the bail bond office would show me documentation proving that the liens are not fraudulent.

I immediately went to the office and spoke with the employee Mr. Grayson mentioned by name.  Not only did this person not have any documents to show me, she said the following - paraphrased - 'I don't know what you're talking about, the bail bondsman has not provided me with any documents to show you, and I nor anyone else here has ever spoken with anyone named Steven Grayson.

I then left urgent phone messages and sent urgent emails to Mr. Grayson imploring him to contact me immediately so that I could share the results of this meeting with him via telephone.  I also simultaneously directed him to proceed with preparing two specific types of legal documents  - a complaint against the bondsman with the Californai Department of Insurance as well as Declaratory Relief Petitiions for San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties to have the fraudulent liens promptly removed from both of my parents's homes.

Mr. Grayson not only refused to return my phone calls, he sent me unprofessional emails telling me that he was not my errand boy and that he was refusing to prepare the requested legal documents - a job for which he has in fact already been paid - and again demanded that I send him an email detailing the results of my meeting with the bail bond office employee.

My father has since left phone messages for Mr. Grayson, as have I, and I sent an email to Mr. Grayson, copied to both my parents, advising him that since he refused to return my calls, that my father has now asked me to arrange an in-person meeting with Mr. Grayson so that me and my father may speak with him in-person about these issues with the bondsman as well as the unresolved issues with probation.  All of which Mr. Grayson has been handsomely paid for; however, the probation matters remain unresolved and, according to the bail bond office, Mr. Grayson has been lying to us since December, 2015 and has not actually lifted a finger to contact the bail bond office in any manner whatsoever.

Of course, we are unable to resolve any of these issues because Mr. Grayson has our hard-earned money, refuses to return our phone calls, and refuses to meet with us.

Hence, we have been ripped off by this man who claimed to want to help me but has only helped himself to a very expensive set of brand new pens in an equally expensive leather case as well as over $1,500 of our hard-earned dollars in exchange for nothing but more misery and woe.