Jerome Alan Scharoff

Mr Scharoff represented me in my divorce. My initial impressions were that he was knowledgeable and encouraging. Well after retaining him I found him to be completely unprofessional on many levels. In the initial stages of the divorce on 2 occasions I received a phone call that he couldn't appear an...d other lawyers would be handling the case that day. There were many occasions at court where I was waiting hours for the lawyers to speak to the judge (never saw the judge once..divorce settled). While there, I wanted to discuss my case. He was almost always unavailable. On one occasion I called him out on it and I was dismissed by him. He then resumed discussing other case with other attorneys. I was in a custody dispute. My ex-wife was a non working spouse. We had a conference scheduled between myself and ex-wife, her and my lawyer, my daughters lawyer (my wife & daughters lawyer are at my expense too.) Mr Sharoff was over 40 minutes late to the meeting which not only added to his bill but also the 2 other attorneys. The meeting was rushed as the other attorneys had other commitments and thought was wasted time as a result. Promises to adjust the bill for his and their time resulted in "lets have a conference" which never happened. I did have one conference to adjust a different billing conflict. I was then billed for the conference to discuss the bill(it was removed once I caught it). My Ex wife and I ended up not going to court and we signed a divorce agreement. My ex wife was obsessed with getting the finalized agreement signed off by the judge. Upon filing the papers Mr Scharoff set my expectations that he would get the court stamped copies but it takes several months to a year. He said he would check weekly and provide them when issued. I had already paid him a substantial sum. I was to pay him the balance upon completion of the case. My ex was hounding me and making my life miserable because she didn't have the final papers in hand. After months of calls to Mr Scharoffs office who stated they didn't have it yet,I went down to the court to check the status personally. Low and behold I got 2 stamped copies that had been signed by the judge months before. I couldn't believe that I was ignored in this fashion. The only time they reached out is when I didn't settle the balance. I explained (to his assistant) that he did not deliver the final product which caused a tremendous amount of conflict. I told his assistant that I was inclined not to pay. He has been sending me invoices for over the last couple of years, adding interest to each bill monthly. I finally received a letter from a collection agency. I have just got my credit back form my divorce and now he is threatening that. I would ask you if you think I should recommend his services or report him to the bar association?