H. Ernest Stone

I hired Ernie for some basic legal defense, to file a reconsideration for a Harassment Prevention order as well as some unfounded accusations from a nightmare neighbor. The first issues arose a few months after hiring Ernie, when I'd write several emails and leave several voice mails - over the cours...e of several weeks - with no response. It wasn't until my first sentence was "are you still representing me"? He finally replied to that one. He did a fine job with the Reconsideration filing, but my issue was with how the show/cause hearing went. I believe that Defense Attorney 101 would be to have a copy of the Police Report on hand before the hearing, and discuss it with your client before said hearing. The police report the Magistrate was reading off of was not familiar to Ernie or myself, and we have another Police Report that would show a dramatic difference in the accusers story. But instead of saying "can I conference with my client?", so we could figure out what was going on - I kept trying to speak up and indicate the mistakes on the Police Report they had (which would have been easily proven had Ernie produced the original Police Report), but Ernie kept saying "SHUT YOUR MOUTH" and "YOU BE QUIET". Well not surprisingly the Magistrate then said she has a bad feeling about me - probably because my attorney was showing serious disrespect toward his client right in front of the magistrate. When I finally was able to speak, I pointed out the error in the police report, you'd think Ernie would have showed them the original police report which would have tossed the whole ridiculous case out - but he failed at that basic defense and substituted it with shouting at his client (me). The Magistrate gave us a CWAF - not a dismissal based on a changing story by the accuser. So we go into the hallway outside the court room and Ernie then starts to shout at the top of his lungs - echoing through the court house "YOU WON, YOU WON... YOU ALMOST TALKED YOURSELF INTO MORE CHARGES....". That's actually not what happened - it wasn't a win, it was a CWAF. And he should have defended me with the tools and evidence I provided to him. I had given Ernie the key police report, sent it to him several times and pointed out the issue. Apparently he forgot about that right when it really mattered. I should have fired him when he didn't respond for weeks in the beginning.

I hired Ernie Stone to handle a variety of personal legal needs, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to find an attorney who could handle them all. However, Ernie was professional, informed, and fast-working. He researched my various (some marginal) needs, and he handled them all well. Most importan...tly, Ernie got me what I wanted and then some in court.