Complicated Legal Issue For

[William Hall]

I like some advice on a legal issue I've been dealing with for years. In '94, Dad met a real estate agent, loaned him 20K, they did a few deals that went OK, and then in '97, Dad borrowed another 20K out of our 4-unit left to us by my great-aunt. The agent opened his own office by this time, and tossed Dad a few bucks here and there, but the big return never came. By '99, Dad came clean with me, and I had the family attorney file a lawsuit on his behalf and won in '02 by default judgment. The court awarded us several hundred thousand for conversion, fraud and intentional infliction of distress.

The broker went underground, lost his license, no property, no visible assets, and was also cited for falsely representing himself as a lender. BTW, Dad passed at the end of '02. I hired two private investigators that found no trace of him.

In '07, the attorney set up a probate trust with the uncolleted judgment as the only asset, with no other claimants. The broker pops up within a month to dispute the judgment. His motion to have the judgement set aside was granted, and we were ordered into mediation. His reasoning to have the motion set aside contradicts his statements in deposition. We had mediation in '08, at the end of '08, I agreed to settle for far less than the original judgement just to get it off my plate. The settlement was to be secured by a trust deed to a duplex in La Habra, CA if he defaulted on any payments per settlement.

I left for active duty in '09, our attorney gave me 3k as an "advance". I would contact the attorney when I could and he would state he hadn't heard from the broker. I had a child, another tour of active duty, and got imjured on this tour. I happened to pop up on the attorney about this time last year.

I found he had moved, lost his license (others complained of the same things, late on taxes, non-compliance with the bar, defrauding the VA, and especially that he did not return phone calls). As I was going to ask him to recuse himself, he hands me part of the file with this news, blaming it on his deceased office manager. I had to wait two more months to get the complete file, and I discover the broker did pay 10K in money orders, but was supposed to pay 27K more in cash. I also then discovered the broker borrowed the max on the property securing the settlement, and then allowed it to go into foreclosure in '10. The broker is now sucessfully working again in Orange County, CA.

I have complained to every state agency I could think of about the broker, and one paralegal said I might still be able to get my attorney for malpractice. The last I heard, he is working under another attorney closing out his last cases.

Am I dead in the water, or is their still life in this thing? I have not been able to come across an attorney that handles malpractice.