On December 26th of 2006 my brother got into some deep trouble with the law. Since it was a serious offence, my mother went in search for help. She came across this so-called "non-profit" organization called Angel de la Comunidad, which means "Angel of the Community". This organization helps low-income hispanic families find "affordable" attorneys. So disguised as a Non-profit it really is a referral program. Every week, this place is full of new clients. My mom meet with Maria Aumada (head of the organization) & Attorney Robin R. Scroggie to discuss my bother's situation. They told my mother that my brother was looking at 20 yrs.in prison if she didn't hire an attorney to help him. What mother would want their son to be in prison for 20 years of his life? Robin Scroggie wanted $7,000.00 upfront. He sold himself like a great lawyer and told me and I quote "I'm going to give you Cadillac service for a Pinto price." We were so confident that we had found a good lawyer for my bother, it never crossed our minds that were going to receive just the opposite (a pinto service for a cadillac price).
My mother paid Robin $3,500.00 on the day of the meeting and paid the other $3,500.00 on the day of the my brother's court hearing. This money my mother had to borrow from family. What "low-income family" has $7,000.00 to give away? My brother's first court date was when I met Robin and that's when he gave me his Cadillac quote and told how he's been on big cases like the Peterson's case. I should have asked him if he was on the losing side. That day he showed up on time because he had a $3,500.00 check waiting for him. Because after that most of the time he would just send someone in his place to just postpone court date and the times he did show he was very late to only do the samething, push it for another day. My mother would be at the court from 8:30 am and have to wait for him or his replacement, usually after 2pm. On the first court date he said he would prepare a case. He gave me a number of an investigator, who he was going to hire from the $7k, who was going to talk to us and prepare a case and I would have to contact him within a week. Well I called the investigator and he told me he wasn't hired for that case yet and he knew nothing about it. I tried to get a hold of Robin and left him messages to which he never returned my calls. Court days pass where Robin sends another attorney to postpone the court dates again. I would call the investigator and again he would tell me that he wasn't hired for the case, but to be patient that attorneys where like that. The time when Robin did show up we asked him about the investigator and he responded with: "I did hire him, but he pissed me off so I fired him." "But don't worry I'm going to get a psycologist to take a look at your brother" Since we were told that he was a good lawyer and to be patient, we trusted him. More court dates went by and no psycologist (what a surprise). His excuse this time: "The psycologist that I hired is very busy and he's the best..." This went on for 6 months! The case went up to a higher department where the process was going to start all over again and find out if it was going to trial. So to our suprise Robin tells us " I was only hired for the preliminary hearing.."
" I know I didn't give you your monies forth. Lets get together and we'll discuss about what I can do for your brother with what you have already paid". That's is when I found out that my mom unknowingly had sign an agreement with the attroney that he was hired only for the Preliminary hearing. The non-profit organization that referred Robin failed to explain this to her. She even asked them that if $7,000.00 was all that she had to pay Robin so he can help her son and they answered yes. Why do you think we were so patient with him? We thought we had a good lawyer for a good price.
My mother and aunt went to a meeting with Maria Aumada and Robin to discuss what was going on and what was Robin going to do now to help them. So Robin told them that since he was only hired for the preliminaries it would take another $10,000.00 (upfront) for him to continue his work. What work?
This is why lawyers have such a bad reputation. I'm pretty sure we are not the only families that are getting rip-off like this. Robin gets new clients through this "non-profit" organization every tuesday and/or thursday of every week. I'm sure he does win some of cases but for those that have the money to pay him. He has so many cases that it affects his quality of service and the ones that can't afford to pay his fees end up being tossed aside. What upsets me the most is that they got my mothers hopes up and in debt to only not delivery what they promised. My mother was better off not hiring Robin in the first place. The court appointed attorney was more communicative, helpful, and did more work than Robin and we didn't even have to pay him. He explained how the system works and let us know what our options were.
My brother is serving 5 years and my mother is heart broken and in debt. It hurts to think about how many other low-income hispanic, that speak no or very little english get tricked into believing that they are getting a "good" attorney for a "affordable price". This people have to borrow from other families, refinance their homes, and maximize their credit cards to try to help their love ones. I tried asking Robin for a partial refund and he just laughed. He must think he is untouchable because he's a lawyer. The "non-profit" and Robin don't want to even accept or return my calls. I asked the receptionist of Angel de la comunidad to give me their address and he said he couldn't give me that information. I asked why not and he said that those were his orders from Maria Aumada.
Antonio
Anaheim, California
U.S.A.
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