| In 1995 a neighbors dog bites girlfriend, the owner was a Medic whose insurance was State Farm. | |
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After five years and four attorneys the divorce and suit was finished. In May
1995 a neighbors dog bites my girlfriend, the owner was a "medic" he treated
the injury, promised to see that it healed and asked that the dog not be reported.
Two weeks pass, the injury was getting worse and the "medic" never showed up, the
dog was loose again so I took my girlfriend to the ER where they treated the injury.
The
Dog Bite attorney - Mr. Thomas E. Burks was retained in 1995 by my girlfriend as a probono counsel, this was because in 1994 she was bankrupt. Mr. Burks instructed my girlfriend to see a specialist
to identify why her leg continued to collapse after the skin grafts had healed. This specialist was to be paid at settlement time. This attorney seemed
to be pro-active and he told us that the excuse the insurance company used for not settling was that their client had moved on, this attorney
claimed that he intended to file a bench warrant for the "medic". However in the year 2000 the
psychiatrist that the
fourth attorney had instructed us to see, called us up and pointed out an
article in the Washington Post, Big-Spending Lawyer Leaves Clients in Limbo (June 1, 2000).
In 2000 the Virginia State Bar went after the attorney, Mr. Burks. Since my
girlfriend was a pro-bono client they sent her records and
dismissed her. The only thing that mattered to them was the money the clients
had paid to this attorney and the settlements that he had stolen. There was no
concern for the damage caused to the cases of the deserted clients. By the time
that we managed to get an attorney to even consider it they just spouted the
party line about what they could not do. A year of being laid up, a bum leg,
another five years of dealing with the courts and this time an insurance
company - was lost by my girlfriend. Would it have been that painful for the
Virginia State Bar to assign an attorney to address her
pro-bono case ? Such an action would have demonstrated that the institution was
pro-active in ensuring the sanctity of the courts, the industry and damage
caused by their failed membership.
In 1995 the dog bite attorney was retained we had asked him to look into the "abuse of process" that the Fourth Attorney had started. This attorney instructed us to wait till the injury issue was resolved, this seemed reasonable at the time. We did not expect that the injury would take five years or that he would desert. Five more years had passed, my girlfriend was unemployed, bankrupt, injured and owing a specialist for diagnosing and treating the injury and lastly unrepresented by counsel. My girlfriend was represented by Mr. Burks for five years (1995-2001). Given the charges by the Bar, we cannot help but wonder if Mr. Burks made the settlement disappear and maintained the illusion of an active case. We knew that Mr. Burks had a tape where the State Farm representative stated that we had a case. After the tape, Mr. Burks told us that the medic, the owner of the dog, disappeared. He told us that State Farm would not pay up because they wanted another interview so for five years we waited on the case.
Failing all other endeavors I wrote a certified letter to the author of the Washington Post article in an attempt to address our attorney problem through the press, that letter disappeared, didn't even get the delivery slip back. Damaged by a crusading attorney, a medics dog, deserting/failing attorneys, a history of being stalked and vandalism with no solution in sight - through these years I was worried that my brakes would get cut, house burned down and we had no resources. |

| After a year | Who we were suspicious of |
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