Joseph A Trevino

My retainer with Trevino is dated June 10, 1995, Case No. 95-14865, for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The retainer agreement stated that Trevino would "prepare a bankruptcy plan, provide financial advice, and deal directly with the creditors." Preparing a bankruptcy plan was a matter of accepting witho...ut question the 1st trust's terms. Providing financial advice was a matter of allowing me, his client, to waste $21,000 in the bankruptcy plan from the fall of 1995 to the fall of 1996 then to abandon me, his client, to the 1st trust's demands. Dealing directly with the creditors was a matter of going to secret meetings to which I, his client, was not invited and of which I, his client, was not informed and making secret deals the terms of which I, his client, was also not informed. I had to discover those terms on my own from the court. The 1st trust represented the escrow deficit in the bankruptcy plan as $2455 but demanded $361.67 per month in the plan. The $361.67 is $4340/year. The property taxes prior to 1995 had been $1700-$1800 per year. The homeowner's tax credit reduced the taxes in 1995 to $603 and in 1996 to $887. The insurance was $305. That was $75/mo and $100/mo. required for the escrow account, much less than the $361.67 demanded. Trevino repeatedly gave the mortgage lender over my protests the $361.67 demanded. The mortgage lender had collected for the escrow account $23/mo. thru all of 1992 and $68/mo. in 1993. The real deficit was more like $4500 not $2455. Trevino failed to discover and explain to me, his client, that the mortgage lender had completely mismanaged the escrow account over the previous five years and created the enormous deficit. The house was lost to auction in December 1996. By the time I , the client, discovered what had really happened it was too late to take any legal action. It was not a small matter. The cost in the end was more than $300,000. This is all well documented for anyone who want to see the record.