- Report: #80287
Complaint Review: Scott J. Capriglione - Trenton New Jersey
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Scott J. Capriglione
795 Parkway Avenue Lexington Mews - Suite A-3 Trenton, NJ 08618 Trenton, 08618 New Jersey, U.S.A.
Phone:
609-882-6951
Web:
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Scott J. Capriglione ripoff, deceptive, incompetent, dishonest, greedy, unprofessional business practices, unreliable Trenton New Jersey
My fiance and I hired, Scott Capriglione, to have my child support reduced.
I agreeded to put my ex-wife through nursing school and pay all the bills for her and my 3 children, for 1 year, after which, we both agreeded, to have my support reduced, as quickly as, 10 days after her new employemnt.
Mr. Capriglione told me in our very first interview, on 12/02/03, that he could guarentee, my support would drop by at least 35%. Basically, because she was now making the same hourly amount I was making and this amount was based on her having NO income at all and that made sense! If it didn't, I'm sure my Ex-wife would never have signed and agreeded to it.
In our divorce agreeement, we both agreed to adjust the support, accordingly, to New Jersey's State Guidelines. When the time came, she refused to do so when I presented her with this, so I hired a lawyer!
It's pretty cut and dry here, I honestly didn't think I needed a lawyer but, figured, I'd somehow get screwed if I didn't hire one!
My first mistake was taking his word, on anything! On 12/2/03 I met with Mr. Capriglione and made an agreement to pay 50% now and 50% on the day of court. He changed this verbal agreement 3 times, within the month. Until finally his entire fee was paid!
During this time, he assured me I'd have the legal documents, from the county, in 15 working days or less, from the time I gave him all the paperwork. Included, I was to write a letter to the judge, stating my case. I gave all of this to my lawyer, exactly 1 week after he asked for it. He said "it's very important to get it back ASAP. So, I did.
One week later, I called his office and asked to speak to him. At which time he asked me why I hadn't handed in all the paperwork yet! I told him I did, 1 week ago. He proceeded to yell at the assistants and finally said they lost it but, he has it now and will file it by the end of the week.
To make a long letter short, he went back on everything he said to me! Unfortunately, I didn't get most of this in writing. Regardless, he is supposed to be a "Fathers Advocate Lawyer", but I really don't thick he's working with me or for me, for that matter, at all!
Reduction of support (according to him) is retro-active from the date it's filed with the county. Okay, Well I told Scott, 5 times, the last judge said "this case is ONLY to be filed in Burlington County, NJ, from here on out.
When I did finally recieve a court date, on 1/20/04 it was filed in my county(Mercer County, NJ) not Burlington County! What was I paying this idiot for!? But, it was too late to do anyting else and I could not afford another attorney!
The worst part, and this is the part that convinces me, without a doubt, Mr. Capriglione is incompetent, came the day before court (2/12/04 - at 12 noon)I'm scheduled for court in less then 24 hours, remember, I decided to call him to make sure everything was on. His assistant informed me, he had our court appointment crossed off his calender "Per Scott". No explaination given!!!
I repeatedly asked her to make sure he gets back to me today about this matter, she assured me "he will get this message". I never recieved a letter, or a phone call, from him or his office, telling me not to show up! I had to take time off work to be there and he never bothered to tell me not to come!!
I just can't let this slide and even if I could, my fiance, woold'nt let me!! I agree with her!
It's about time, these incompetent lawyers get what THEY DESERVE! If nothing else comes of this complaint, I hope and pray we are given a choice, to shop around, for the best, most afforable, competent legal help, without being told "It's against the law to have someone represent you, who does'nt have a law degree, because they honestly want to help you, at an honest days pay and you get an honest human being to represent you!
One can only dream of this day! I could go on but that's for another day!!
Tom
Hamilton, New Jersey
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Attorneys and Lawyers
I agreeded to put my ex-wife through nursing school and pay all the bills for her and my 3 children, for 1 year, after which, we both agreeded, to have my support reduced, as quickly as, 10 days after her new employemnt.
Mr. Capriglione told me in our very first interview, on 12/02/03, that he could guarentee, my support would drop by at least 35%. Basically, because she was now making the same hourly amount I was making and this amount was based on her having NO income at all and that made sense! If it didn't, I'm sure my Ex-wife would never have signed and agreeded to it.
In our divorce agreeement, we both agreed to adjust the support, accordingly, to New Jersey's State Guidelines. When the time came, she refused to do so when I presented her with this, so I hired a lawyer!
It's pretty cut and dry here, I honestly didn't think I needed a lawyer but, figured, I'd somehow get screwed if I didn't hire one!
My first mistake was taking his word, on anything! On 12/2/03 I met with Mr. Capriglione and made an agreement to pay 50% now and 50% on the day of court. He changed this verbal agreement 3 times, within the month. Until finally his entire fee was paid!
During this time, he assured me I'd have the legal documents, from the county, in 15 working days or less, from the time I gave him all the paperwork. Included, I was to write a letter to the judge, stating my case. I gave all of this to my lawyer, exactly 1 week after he asked for it. He said "it's very important to get it back ASAP. So, I did.
One week later, I called his office and asked to speak to him. At which time he asked me why I hadn't handed in all the paperwork yet! I told him I did, 1 week ago. He proceeded to yell at the assistants and finally said they lost it but, he has it now and will file it by the end of the week.
To make a long letter short, he went back on everything he said to me! Unfortunately, I didn't get most of this in writing. Regardless, he is supposed to be a "Fathers Advocate Lawyer", but I really don't thick he's working with me or for me, for that matter, at all!
Reduction of support (according to him) is retro-active from the date it's filed with the county. Okay, Well I told Scott, 5 times, the last judge said "this case is ONLY to be filed in Burlington County, NJ, from here on out.
When I did finally recieve a court date, on 1/20/04 it was filed in my county(Mercer County, NJ) not Burlington County! What was I paying this idiot for!? But, it was too late to do anyting else and I could not afford another attorney!
The worst part, and this is the part that convinces me, without a doubt, Mr. Capriglione is incompetent, came the day before court (2/12/04 - at 12 noon)I'm scheduled for court in less then 24 hours, remember, I decided to call him to make sure everything was on. His assistant informed me, he had our court appointment crossed off his calender "Per Scott". No explaination given!!!
I repeatedly asked her to make sure he gets back to me today about this matter, she assured me "he will get this message". I never recieved a letter, or a phone call, from him or his office, telling me not to show up! I had to take time off work to be there and he never bothered to tell me not to come!!
I just can't let this slide and even if I could, my fiance, woold'nt let me!! I agree with her!
It's about time, these incompetent lawyers get what THEY DESERVE! If nothing else comes of this complaint, I hope and pray we are given a choice, to shop around, for the best, most afforable, competent legal help, without being told "It's against the law to have someone represent you, who does'nt have a law degree, because they honestly want to help you, at an honest days pay and you get an honest human being to represent you!
One can only dream of this day! I could go on but that's for another day!!
Tom
Hamilton, New Jersey
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Attorneys and Lawyers
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Tim
Valparaiso,Indiana,
U.S.A.
Laymen cannot give competent representation!
#2Consumer Suggestion
Fri, February 13, 2004
Tom, if you really feel that this lawyer loused things up horribly there are a couple things you can do. You can file a complaint with your state bar association, and/or you can talk to another attorney and look into the possibility of a legal malpractice suit. If he actually did file in the wrong court, among other things, you may have such a case. I don't know the specifics of your situation, and there are two sides to every story. Not that there aren't some incompetent lawyers out there. But what it boils down to, most of the time, is that the client thinks he knows the law because he heard this or that from a friend, and when the law isn't what he thought it was, he sticks to his guns and blames the lawyer. That leads me in to my next comment. There is a very good reason why only bar admitted JD and LL.M holders are allowed to represent people in court. There are an awful lot of people out there who think that the law is simple and that they could competently perform the work of a lawyer. The truth, however, is that the law is EXTREMELY complicated and laymen, no matter how much they may think they know, are not able to give competent representation. If the law was simple it wouldn't require three years of extremely grueling work (in addition to the four years required to get a Bachelor's degree) to learn it. And performing a lawyer's work requires much more than knowledge of the law. It requires the ability to find out what the law is, how the courts have interpreted the law, why they may have interpreted it wrongly, and most importantly, the ability to effectively communicate what your research has shown you, in a language and style far different from common English. And there are no "do-overs" in the law. Let's say you let your friend represent you because he watches Law and Order every night. When you inevitably realize that your friend was ill-equipped to compete against a law-trained scholar it will be too late. You can't come back with a real lawyer and say you want to try it again. When an issue or claim is adjudged it is final, and you're stuck with the product of a layman's legal assistance. I say all of this with a great deal of perspective. I once thought I knew the law well enough to defend a friend of mine on a possession charge. My feeling was based on a couple of classes I took in undergraduate and what I thought was a clear cut understanding of fourth amendment law. Needless to say, the judge wouldn't allow it. And rightfully so. Now that I have immersed myself in the actual study of law, I realize that I would have sent my buddy up the river, because the law is never clear cut, and it takes an academically trained legal mind to understand it. Anyways, best of luck to you, and I hope your situation is resolved fairly and quickly.
