Law Office of Simon R. Hiller Simon Robert Hiller is a terrible attorney who is a clear example of someone who is best at taking your money and in turn won't answer your phone calls. I somehow received good references for this person and since his fee was lower than other attorneys I decided to go with him. Mind you I had no prior experience of the legal system or court cases so I decided that hiring an attorney with good references would be the wise choice to make.
A week before the trial, I was summoned to his office to discuss the option of having an expert witness appear to testify on my behalf. Keep in mind that the plaintiff had borderline, yet questionable evidence to win the case. The cost of an expert witness was an additional X amount of dollars, which I might as well have thrown away.
Simon did not represent me, rather, he gave the case to another attorney of questionable expertise. After reviewing the decision of the court, I realized that the attorney who represented me gave the same argument that you'll find on the web site of EVERY attorney who deals with cases like mine. Absolutely nothing original, and an argument that the judge has unmistakably heard time after time again. Needless to say, I lost.
And after that, it gets worse. For someone who can talk your ear off, he certainly didn't give me any useful advice on the implications of what would happen after the judgment was rendered. Nothing about what I have to admit on a job application, nothing about how long I could wait to apply for early termination of probation, and certainly nothing about getting the charge removed from my records with an expungement.
In fact, after the case ended, he wouldn't even return half my phone calls. His secretary would take down my questions and get back to me after a few days of waiting, or not get back to me at all. I even ended up losing a job because he said to "call him" if questioned about a criminal background check, which I guess explaining things like the difference between a misdemeanor and felony and what type of charge you ultimately plead guilty to is apparently outside what he considers worth explaining.
I'm certainly not trying to evade responsibility here; I made a mistake and I paid for it. I have no problem with that and I lead an honest life. But this isn't about what I did wrong. I would expect any good private attorney to ensure that you are fully aware of consequences of a judgment against you, especially after losing the case. Simon did none of that, and is therefore just another money-hungry attorney who ignores quality service and cares less about taking care of his customers.
0 comments