Leon D Bayer's Reviews

Lawyer's Comment: What would you do in this situation? This anonymous person is not my client. Let me tell you the rest of the story. This person came to me a few days ago with a foreclosure sale that is about to take place. I gave this person an extensive, completely free consultation, covering all the options including short sale, Chapter 13, and Chapter 7. This person got to spend almost an hour with me at absolutely no cost whatsoever. This person had already been in foreclosure for almost 5 months, in loan default for 3 or 4 months prior to foreclosure commencing, and still had not made any decision of what to do about the problem. (This was my last appointment of the day and I was closing). After spending almost an hour with me, this person still had not made any decisions and wanted my cell number and wanted me to be available on my cell phone for additional discussions on after she got home. I said "No, please decide right now, otherwise I can not make the commitment that I can be available to represent you because time has just about run out to stop the foreclosure sale." (I hope you agree with me that level of free services being demanded by this prospective client 's has reached the stage of becomming unreasonable.) I told this person I will make the time to take the case and do the work necessary to stop the foreclosure sale IF a commitment was made immediately to retain me and for this person to schedule a return appointment and be prepared to spend the entire next day in my office the next day for an emergency bankruptcy filing. I told the person that in order to accomodate the emergency services needed, I had to rework my own schedule and schedule a secretary to drop everything else we were both supposed to do the next day so that we could be available to prepare and file the bankruptcy case. I also said that the fees would need to be paid in cash, as there was no time to wait for a check to clear. Believe it or not, even a cashier's check can sometimes have a "stop payment" put on it. (Over the past 30 years I have accumulated a drawer full of NSF checks from other people. I have even seen a "stop payment" put on cashier's checks.) Ordinarily I am perfectly willing to take a personal check. However, if a bankruptcy case has to be filed before a check would clear, we have learned to hard way that we need to ask for cash. Too bad, but that's the way it is. This person is not my client. I hope you will read the kind words posted by people who actually were my clients. Sincerely, Leon Bayer

Lawyer's Comment: I agree with Leon Bayer 100%. I know for a fact that cashier's checks can be stopped (regardless of what the banks may tell you), so asking for cash in an emergency filing situation is totally appropriate. Also, unless the potential client commits to representation and pays the retainer, there is no reason for Mr. Bayer to hand out his cell phone number to someone who may just want to call him for free legal advice.