I secured the services of Christopher Yeazell, an attorney w / the Law Offices of Kevin A Moore in Dec. 2005 as my divorce attorney. After the initial consultation, I felt very much in the dark about what was going on and that Mr. Yeazell was not expediting the situation. My primary relationship with him was leaving messages on his voice mail.
I found out that Mr. Yeazell had been devoting virtually all his energies to a murder trial. He assured me that his law offices would not take on cases they could not devote appropriate energies to. A requisition for all my records ane expenses came from the opposing attorney. This was forwarded to me exactly as received without any explanation or guidance as to what I should do.
Upon meeting w / Mr. Yeazell in person in April I found he was preparing for yet another murder trial. I decided to find another attorney who only specialized in family law instead of as a sideline. Upon interviewing attorneys in the area, I asked their opinions on the "non-refundable" retainer w / Mr. Yeazell. They all felt that despite the language, any honorable attorney would return the balance and that it should not be a windfall for doing nothing.
I received a voice mail from Mr. Yeazell asking for verification of the change of attorney and that he wanted to "discuss" my retainer and my reasons for changing attorneys. I then called back multiple times, each time getting his voicemail. I finally articulated my reasons for changing attorneys to his voicemail. He never called back.
I finally sent a letter in August asking for the balance of my fees retainer and an accounting of the costs retainer. I received a letter back from Mr. Yeazell stating that since it was a non-refundable retainer, he was pocketing the money, nearly $3000. There also was no accounting for the costs retainer. A check for the costs retainer arrived w/o accounting late December.
I entered a complaint with the Hillsborough County Consumer Affairs and was told that the bar association "policed their own" and that the county and the state had no authority to do anything!!! The bar association wasn't interested.
So the moral of this story to avoid being ripped off yourself is don't hire Christopher Yeazell or anyone else in the Law Offices of Kevin A Moore and don't sign a 'non-refundable' retainer agreement w / any attorney.
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