Had a horrible experience several months ago when I hired former-prosecutor, now private practice Phoenix attorney Edward Maldonado to represent me on a criminal matter after seeing his ad on the website of CCV, a Phoenix mega-church I use to attend (till they refused to remove his ad or reprimand him). When I met Ed to interview him he said he was a Christian and a member of CCV so I felt safer, trusted him and gave him the job. We spent time doing a complete conflicts check, and, no conflicts. Ed demanded I pay him in clear funds, so I gave him the full clear funds (money orders) he demanded and we signed a detailed retainer agreement that outined the scope of work: and my added addendums which required Ed begin working on my case immediately due to fast approaching deadlines and he also agreed SPECIFICALLY IN WRITING to ONLY COMMUNICATE with me via ONLY email, never telephone, as I wanted an easy to review, time-and-date stamped paper trail for all his work and all of our back and forth communication, since I was out of state.
To make this story shorter: over the course of the next week, a week in which my case had a critical deadline, I email for updates-status, three times, and never received a response. Finally, ED emailed back that "he thought" he emailed me back. He hadn't. And then he called me in violation of our agreement and harassed me as I expressed my upset with him for missing the deadline and not maintaining our email only communication. Then he emailed me and said he had a conflict, hadnt done anything for two weeks, has never recorded his change of attorney status with the court as agreed, and that he had unilaterally sent my retainer refund to an out of state address he had without any seeking my advance approval, which I would have rejected because I was here in Phoenix where I would need the funds, as he clearly knew, to hire another attorney. It cost me over $1400 in expenses alone to make two trips out of state to check for his refund letter, it hadnt arrive my first trip and then arrived on my second. Unfortunately when I went to cash it at B of A it was a BAD check, NSF, on two consecutive days. I notified Ed by certified letter and he has refused to respond or make it good now over several months time. Writing a bad check in Maricopa county is a felony. Now I plan to file a lawsuit agianst Ed and include this in my AZ Bar complaint against him. Please, tell everyone who may need a criminal defense attorney: don't be lured in by a low fee! You will pay in the end. Rateturn my retainer in full clear funds, just the way I paid him. Please email me if you've had any bad experience with Edward Maldonado and I will include it with my AZ Bar complaint, if possible.
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