This guy took my retainer and did absolutely nothing for my case. He didn't make one phone call or contact one person regarding my case. He avoided all my calls, was always "out of the office", and when I parked in the waiting room, he sent his secretary out over and over, but refused to come out to answer my questions. After the initial consultation and retainer of $1500, he refused to talk to me for literally 14 months.
He "lost" my evidence in pictures, documents and paper trails. It is obvious that he simply took my money and didn't even open my file.
I reported him to the Bar, there was a supposed investigation, then I found out that he used to be on the Bar review...great. Amazingly, he produced a 'letter that had been sent' after a few weeks of dealing with the Bar inestigation. (I never saw the letter, nor was there any proof that he actually sent it at all....I could clearly see he just made up the letter to get the Bar off his butt). He LIED about my responses saying he 'felt sorry for me and that I didn't have enough money to pursue', when in fact, I had told him that I had a large amount of money to spend on this caseand was willing to spend up to $20,000. I had enough evidence to secure a favorable ending, to make sure to pursue to the most of his ability. The company I needed him to sue, was successfully sued by other attorneys (whom I talked to) representing their clients with minimal effort. By the time I discovered Mr Pinaud was doing NOTHING, the company I needed him to sue had dissolved because of so many lawsuits.
NEVER, ever use this company. He is unprofessional, careless, inconsiderate and won't even come out and talk to you like a man, preferring to send out a young girl secretary to answer to his pissed off clients. I obtained his name off an attorney referral site, and when I complained to them, they hedged and said...oh, I am sorry, please refer to the Bar for complaints. I wish I had the resources now available to at least see how incompetent he is.
wayne zorn
FL - Florida,#2Consumer Comment
Sat, February 14, 2015
I wish I read these reviews before agreeing to hiring Donald Pinuad.. When he agree to take my case I never saw the guy never return my phone calls and his secretary talk to me in which she is not a paralegal. This is when I got a bad feeling of Don and it was true.. I kept asking to see my contract and he voided the question and me.. You try and do the right thing by Law to have someone professional to handle your caes and this guy takes avenge of his clients.. I read the bad reviews on Don Pinuad and all different cases but the same out come from this guy who is very unprofessional.. Takes your money and don't contact you about anything about your caes.. Wish somehow that the people who got rip off from this guy could get interview and see the pattern from Don..The flordia bar really needs to pay attention to this Lawyer he is taken advantage of people.. Just really odd we all have the same bad experience from this lawyer. I see I'm not the only one who has a complaint about this guy in the same matter..
Don Pinaud - Attorney
Jacksonville,#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Sat, January 22, 2011
This is all a total lie, but anyone reading this report needs to understand foremost that under an old federal law, there is no way for ANYONE to force Rip Off Report, Facebook, MySpace or any other website to delete postings any person puts up, even if they are total lies and even if the person is anonymous. Someone can call you a child molester or claim Osama Bin Laden is living in your guestroom and there is nothing you can do to delete the posting.For the most part, all you can do to clear your name is sue the person who posted the lies. That's what we are doing.
Ironically, I can't respond in exact detail to these allegations because, ethically, a lawyer cannot disclose their dealings with a former client on a site like this, even if the client tells lies about you. However, be assured thatthis report is nothing but lie after lie. The only thing that this client says that is true is that the client complained to The Florida Bar, and the Bar investigated the matter and found that the complaint was not valid, and the Bar closed the case. This client now claims that the Bar only threw out the complaint because I "used to be on the Bar review." That's just another total lie.In all fairness, it is true thatthe client showed up at my office without an appointment making demands and being unreasonable and I did not see them. I was not going to abandonclients who took the time and had the respect to make an appointment so that I could ratherdeal with thisdisrepectful and demanding one who did not.
What happened here is that I told the client facts about their case that the client did not want to hear, and the client is now frustrated and angry because I told the client the truth. As a lawyer, I have to tell clients the truth of the matter even if they do not like it. Think about it...if the client was really willing to pay me $20,000 as they claim, wouldn't I have taken the money if I thought the case was worth pursuing? The Bar told this client that the complaint against me was notsupportedby the facts.Once again, the client was told something they did not want to hear, this time by the Bar, and nowthey bad-mouth the Bar and accuse the Bar of only throwing out the complaint because "I was on the Bar review," which is nonsense.There is not even such thing as a "Bar review."
I have been a lawyer for about 14 years and have counseled or represented thousands of clients. I have counseled or represented people from every walkof life you can think of. Kids, cashiers, construction workers, teachers, doctors, even professional sports figures, the list goes on and on. I also represent mom-and-pop small businesses all the way up tomajor multi-million dollar organizations.I handle a wide variety of state and federal civil and criminal cases, and I handle state and federal lawsuits, administrative proceedings,arbitrations, etc, as well as matters outside of courts likedrafting or reviewing contracts, wills, deeds,etc. I have handled cases from small claims court in Jacksonville, all the way up to arguing before the United States Supreme Court in Washington, and all kinds of courtsin between.
When you help this many people in so many circumstances, there are always a few who want to blame the lawyer when things don't turn out like they wanted, eventhough itis not thelawyer's fault. Unfortunately, the countlesspeople who are pleased or satisfied never really take the time to post good things about you on the Internet, but I routinely get cards (and occasionally baked goods) from clients thanking me for my help.
At least the fact that Rip Off Report never deletes reports will allow a judge or jury to read exactly the lies that this persontold for themselves.
Don Pinaud