Nikki
Coconut Creek,#2Consumer Comment
Mon, August 04, 2008
I worked for a criminal defense attorney years ago, and was a legal secretary for about 8 years. It was not Scott and I did not know him. First, we did not "babysit" the family. We represented the defendant, and no one else, no matter who paid us. We were so busy, we did not have time to speak with the mother, the father, the brother, the sister, the grandparents, etc. If we did, we would have had no time to actually work on our cases. I would explain this to many families, in a nice way of course, and some seemed to understand and some did not. Of course, the defendant was welcome to call at anytime. If your son's attorney sent you an email that seemed rude to you, that may have been the way you took it (sometimes emails are not a very good communication tool). The attorney may have just been trying to state a fact and get on with his workday. As for not showing up for court, there could have been a number of reasons. Many hearings do not require the attorney's presence if he satisfied it with a written notice, motion, etc. However, your son would still have been brought down from the jail for the hearing. Many times, the attorney files a Motion for Continuance in advance, which is granted by the judge, but the defendant is still brought down and family members may show up, thinking there is still a hearing. When they see their attorney did not attend, they become very irate. Many times attorneys do not show for court because they are in another courtroom. When an attorney has 5 different cases scheduled for 9:00 am, all before different judges, he attends one after another. There are times he is not able to get to the last one or two because the previous hearings took up too much time. The judges usually understand this and reschedule, but the family does not understand. This is not a backwoods county. We have a very large county, with a very large number of cases on the dockets, and a very large number of judges. These things do happen through no fault of the attorneys.
Scott
Coral Springs,#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, August 04, 2008
Joy: Let's get the truth out. Your name is Joy and you paid no money, despite telling us that you would. You did not tell us the whole story and you literally begged for my help. You let your husband beat you and your kids before you finally divorced him and you are partially to blame for son's indiscretions. You said so yourself at the sentencing hearing. Your EX-FATHER IN LAW sent me the money, NOT YOU. Your ex-father in law, a gentlemen, told us NOT TO SPEAK TO YOU, as you were not important and did not pay the fees. The Retainer Agreement speaks for itself. You are not my client and you did not pay the fees and you do not have power of attorney. I HAVE NO DUTY OWED TO YOU. Next, you neglected to mention that he was charged four hours later, after the burglary with Bank Robbery, that he took a plea for, through a PD, WHILE I WAS PREPARING FOR THE SENTENCING HEARING. You also should tell everyone that your son was sentenced to life in prison, unfortunately, due to the fact that he had so many felony convictions and due to the fact that he was convicted of a felony so close to being released from prison on another felony. Let's tell the truth. Tell Jeff Burnside the truth about the case.