I suspect that the problem of negligent representation is endemic to the profession in Virginia. This is based on economics, why expend resources "researching" a case when there is no consequence for "processing" a case - the low bidder on a contract cuts corners.
We have gone through ten law firms here in Virginia, skipping the first five for the time being, the five that followed either did not address written instructions, processed us or played phone tag. This one last year, did not respond to my letters questioning their change of invoice from a credit to a debit and numbers that did not add up or my request to provide a strategy that would clear my girlfriend of her remaining problems.
If we consider the Virginia State Bar's claim that the majority are ethical. The question is:
Do attorneys have a "Black List" of clients that are not of "choice" ?
I make this claim based upon our first five years experience (1989-95). It turned out that the husband in my girlfriends divorce got a
Christian attorney. We wonder about this because of the following:
- The attorney threatened to "destroy" us.
- The attorney claimed that they were not being paid by the client.
- We had church people showing up in the day, giving us notes about "put to death. (law)".
- The attorney had the courts force us to release our street address and within months the stalking husband was in our neighborhood.
- A comment by a real estate agent claiming that our attorney was running for political office - we found out later that the Christian attorney is active politically.
- Our fourth attorney claimed "ethical indescretion's" but then dropped the issue after giving us explicit instructions - without explanation.
There is more, however the concern is that we will never be able to obtain competent counsel in Virginia. Whether because we are on some secret "attorney black list", the "pattern/demographic" that we fit in, an endemic problem with Virginia attorney's or we can only afford the "bad apples".
These failures by attorneys result in a cascade of events, increased risk, debts and "life" sink an individual deeper into the muck, some turn to crime, forced to desperate acts - feeding the machine.
What the heck.
Funny, think I might finally have managed to get my girlfriend to get out of her Bible and go to an event next weekend. Would be nice if the "Christians" that send her Bible lessons would show up on her side and help her out, "Christians" only show up to persecute and threaten.
