ComplaintsforPennington Law PLLC

• Initial Complaint

  04/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  I contacted Pennington law firm through ***** legal which was paid for through a company I worked for. ******* was the attorney given for my case ******* was hired in October 2020 to get custody of my son, it took over 6 months to get anything done with her. In February of 2022, my son was supposed to be turned over to me, I had to hire a separate attorney in ******** to get the case moved to ***** after the case in ******** was won, ******* made it seem like she would fight for me, but she told me to give up my rights to my son. I signed a contract stating for dad to have custody and I would get visits, I will also $2000 for my attorney fees. However, after signing the papers I got nothing. I have not seen my son in a year I did not get the funds owed to me. On 4/3/2023 a year later Pennington law firm contacted me to say the case wasn't closed and asked me for $500 to file paperwork. This was very triggering as I had to go through lots of therapy and so did my other children. I feel like the documents should have been filed appropriately and at that time after signing. I was at peace until I got this call today, That was very triggering for me. I have text messages and emails between myself and ******* showing I excepted the terms of the contract. I would like for the law firm to do what was promised, file the paperwork, give me my lawyer fees, and let me see my son.

  Business response

  04/16/2023

  My office's response to ************** is attached. 

  Customer response

  04/18/2023

  Complaint: 19891128
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  I did get an initial contact. I showed the lawyer messages which are attached but yet again no reply
  
  I have the messages to show my part and says that you started drafting and was getting a signature from his lawyer to finalize,I did my part. Pleas do your part. Im getting the short end of the stick.  I never asked for a new contract all I asked was that the kid go to school, but thats obsolete. I just want you to finish the order.
  
  
  On Tue, Apr 11, 2023 at 10:01 AM ******************************* <**********************************************************************; ***************************** received your complaint through BBB last week, and I wanted to address some of the issues you are having because I don't feel like we are on the same page.
  
  First, you mentioned that you hired me in October of 2020 and that I did not do any work on your case for several months. I looked at your contract, and you actually hired me on August 6, 2021, with the first day we talked being August 5. Further, at that time you had also been served with a petition from Cook County in ********, and you needed to discuss with counsel in ******* whether or not you were going to need to proceed on that case or if that case had been resolved without your knowledge. After discussing with counsel, you informed me that there was not actually a case in *******, and that we could proceed in Williamson County.
  
  In January 2022, you reached out and told me that ************** did not return your son and was not letting you talk to him. We set a default hearing in February 2022. In the meantime, it turned out that there was, in fact, a pending case in ******* on which ************** was proceeding. You had to hire counsel to represent you because he was asking for custody in *******.
  
  We defaulted ************** in February and your attorney in ******* represented you on a writ of habeas for your son to be returned. ************** then hired counsel here to file a Motion for New Trial and because of the situation where your son was not willing to come home, if that was not successful, a Motion to Modify. At that time, we had some exposure with the court because you failed to inform me (and we thereby failed to inform the court at the default hearing) that ************** had been arrested for assault family violence against you and your son was claiming to have witnessed that and that he was still living with you and ****. ****'s ***** counsel cited this as one of the reasons **** did not want to remain in your home.
  
  We then tried to act on the terms of the default order by you going to the school to get **** and making him come home with you. That resulted in everyone going to the police station and ************** again being arrested in front of *********
  
  At that point, we agreed that there was no realistic way for **** to come and live with you again if he did not want to come home, and that you would continue to be fighting with him to stay with you. We entered into an agreement with *************** 
  
  Immediately following that agreement, you had reservations and told me that the agreement was causing you to have to seek counseling and that you would not sign something that didn't guarantee that you saw your son. I explained the only thing we could do is get the order done and enforce it through the court, but you let me know that didn't trust that process to get you the result you wanted, which was to see your son and have him successfully finish the school year. I understood that you did not want to memorialize the agreement in an order, and so I did not draft the order. That was at the beginning of May 2022.
  
  I have not heard from you since. I was not aware that ************** had still not paid you or that you had not seen your son and wanted to proceed with finalizing the order and enforcing it. I had my office reach out because it had been a while since we had talked, and I needed to know if you were wanting to finalize or wanting me to remove myself as your attorney.
  
  In that time, you also stopped your ***** Legal coverage, which means any further work on your case will need to be paid at my hourly rate. I also have not heard from ****************** attorney since you and I last spoke, and so if we want to finalize, I will need to draft the order.
  
  With that information, please let me know how you want to proceed. I can either finalize the order which provides the only mechanism for enforcement, or I can withdraw from your case and you can either hire new counsel if needed or attempt to navigate the court on your own as a pro se litigant.
  
  Also, if you have any concerns, please let me know and we can set up time to talk. 
  
  Thanks,
  
  *****
  
  -- 
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************
  Attorney at Law
  
  Regards,
  
  ***************************

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