Moss & Tapia Law LLC.

Pros: 0

Cons: I had an extremely negative experience with this law firm and would not recommend their services to anyone. If I could give them 0 stars I would do so.

I had my initial consultation with David which lasted only a few minutes. I had some questions about my situation, but he told me he does not work for free and he did not give me any further advice until I signed a retainer agreement. A few days later I received a text from a paralegal asking if I was still interested in their services and to pay a $2,500 retainer. The amount was a surprise to me because David had said that the retainer would be $1,000 during our initial consultation. The invoice they sent me for the retainer was also marked "Past Due" even though it was sent to me before I ever signed a retainer agreement. I believe they did this to get me to pay as soon as possible. After some back and forth with their paralegal over text, I paid $1,000 so that the firm could draft a letter to my landlord.

The paralegal then told me to send important documents that I had to the firm. I asked them what documents I should send but never got a response, which is ridiculous because they are supposed to be advising me as to what is important. After hearing nothing I decided to send them a small amount of documents showing I lived at the apartment like cable bills. I followed up with them, and they told me the letter would be ready by 5pm on a Monday. They missed that deadline without giving me any explanation and despite my multiple texts asking them for an update. And while they were very quick to respond to my messages when it came to paying their retainer, it took them several days to get back to me about the status of my letter.

Based on this, I told them I no longer wanted them to represent me and asked that they refund me. They sent me a receipt showing that I was only refunded $160 out of my $1,000 retainer, and without any explanation of the work they did. I wrote to the firm the next day requesting a full refund. David called me but mostly talked down to me instead of listening to my concerns and said things like "well you signed the retainer agreement." The firm then sent me a timesheet showing about 2.5 hours of work.

According to that time sheet, it took them 1 hour to review the documents I sent (which were just my cable bills and a certificate). They also apparently billed me 1 hour for drafting the letter, which I never received. They also refused to give me a copy of the letter until I said I would be filing a complaint. The letter that it apparently took them an hour to draft was a couple of sentences that I could have done myself. It's unbelievable that this letter reflects two hours of attorney work.

They also billed me for almost half an hour for texts I had with their office at their attorney rates. It was a complete surprise to me that I had ever texted any attorney because the person that was texting me said they were a paralegal, and I received messages like "all attorneys are in court right now". When I asked them about this, they claimed an attorney was texting me some of the time. If that is true, that attorney never identified themself as such and almost all of the texts were about payment of their retainer. Why should I have to pay them for that?

Ultimately, I received no value from this firm and they refuse to refund me in full. Avoid at all costs.

Current or former employee?: Current Employee

Job type: Full time