John Robert Petrone II

John R. Petrone II represented me in a slip and fall case for an injury I sustained in 1996 and that injury is permanent. Petrone was transferred to the case by Attorney John Rinaldi of Syracuse as John was nearing retirement after having done nothing on my case for four years or so. I was young at... the time so I trusted them. Big mistake. Essentially what they did was wait me out to the point where they could settle it without doing any work. They spent seven years doing nothing then tried to collect their fee by attending an Examination Before Trial and settling. They sent underling lawyer Mark Halpin to handle it and the total preparation they gave me for the EBT was between the car and the conference room. I was given 5 minutes of preparation to face an Insurance company attorney who had 30 years of experience. So in essence my lawyer was not representing my best interest they were simply trying in my opinion to see how much money they could get while doing as little work as possible. Subsequently they lost my case file. I spent two years trying to get it knowing they didn't really lose it I speculate, but in fact there was no file because they didn't do any work. I pursued the matter with the US Postal Inspectors as I had evidence that they had altered postal documents. The Postal Inspectors concluded that the matter was of "Peripheral Nexus" to them and they refused to conclude whether they were or were not altered. They contend that the documents were public and basically it wasn't that it had not been done, they simply concluded that they didn't care. My interpretation is that they don't care if a lawyer uses the post office as an excuse in laundering a case file. This is all speculative of course. But the appearance of impropriety was there. Bottom line is no case file was ever generated. They were required to have a retainer agreement. They didn't even have that. Then they had the gall to try to charge me $700 or so for copies, etc. It wasn't until after the case was settled that I realized what had happened to me. The conflict of interest is mind boggling. They took advantage of superior knowledge when placed in a position of trust. I filed a grievance against them and the Attorney Grievance committee said that the lawyer code of conduct ethical cannons are "aspirational in nature only." I guess that means ethics are optional. I contest John Petrone's 1.0 rating. It should be lower. I could have gained better results myself and saved myself 7 years of aggravation. I do not have the words to describe the disdain I have for John Petrone. I'd have sued him for malpractice but after 7 years I'd had enough. When I saw he was disciplined it surely came as no surprise. Karma finally caught up with him. I can only imagine what happens to old people that use people like this and are incapable of defending themselves. If you use Petrone after reading this review then you get what you deserve.