Brett A. Elam

I found Brett Elam to be very knowledgeable in bankruptcy and lien law and competent and aggressive when he represented me in an adversary proceeding in a Chapter 7 case beginning with defense in an emergency hearing with very little notice. Throughout all the hearings where he has represented me, he... always returned my emails (which seems to be the best way to communicate with him) usually within a few hours or at the very least the next morning. Anytime where I might not have been informed of something, I found it was because he had already taken care of it, which alleviated a lot of stress for me. The one thing that really stands out about Brett (I've dealt with a few attorneys) is that he refers to any order or judicial requirement in the "WE" and "US" form during communication. IE... "The Judge ordered US to ...WE need to do this" etc....this made me feel like I really had "real" representation and that he was truly concerned about the outcome as though he himself was a party in the action. I have never had this experience with any other attorney and it gave me confidence in his abilities. I can not comment as to what happened in the other reviews I've just read here, but I must say that it baffles me as I had literally the complete opposite experience. Maybe there were some personality clashes or control issues ( I don't think he cares for rude or unappreciative clients) but it is wise to remember that attorneys are just like anyone else; they want to be respected, thanked and appreciated for what they are doing for you. The law profession is such a tricky field and a lot more goes on then most probably actually understand....I believe if you instill the confidence in your chosen representative and let go of the wheel, the experience should be far better for it; at least it was for me. I am very grateful for Brett and really just can't thank him enough.

The complaints you will read are exactly CORRECT. (I got him on a referral, but when I went back and asked my friend, he said he had never used him before and had got his name from a client. My friend was having the same problems as me). Here are the problems I had with Mr. Elam: 1) he never retur...ned my phone calls, 2) out of 12 emails I sent him over 3 months, he only responded to two of them---once to threaten me (which was imtimidating) and once to say he was "only an email away" when I was complaining that his paralegal who he delegates everything to was not responding to my calls and emails. Even that response was not true because after those two responses he never answered one email. 3) I relied on something his paralegal told me which he had previously claimed that he had reviewed and approved, but it proved to be legally incorrect and it ended up costing me $3,000 in extra settlement dollars to the Trustee. This is documented in emails to him and his Paralegal that I still retain. 4) I was promised a review of my Petition before it was filed (which I learned later was /is the customary industry practice for a bankruptcy). I NEVER got it because they said they were running behind. As a result, some of the schedules I completed were wrong because I used the wrong info because I did not know and never got my questions answered. Later they had to be corrected which cost me even more in legal fees; 5) He showed up not prepared for our 320 Meeting with the Trustee. He confessed to the Trustee that he had never looked at my case until that moment. (This is my opinion, but it appeared he was running a "bankruptcy factory"---churning out as many as he could every month with as little contact with each client as possible. My friend said the exact same thing--that he never returned his calls or answered his emails. On occassion his Paralegal would refer a question that I sent to her to Mr. Elam by forwarding to him with her question and copying me, but he never responded to those either. 6) He told me at the outset that my bankruptcy would cost no more than $3,500. This was to be the maximum. Never was I advised that there might be other fees or that there even could be other fees. He said what was in his contract regarding other fees would not apply to my situation. However, as it happened, another legal step had to be done as requested by the Trustee (which I did not even realize was a possibility), and he attempted to charge me another $1,500 in advance as a Retainer plus another $300+ per hour with no end in site as to how many more hours that might be. This Bankruptcy was the single most stressful thing that I had ever gone through, and having Mr. Elam as my counsel made the experience 25x more stressful and a lot more costly than it should have been!!! Doing it again, I would read all the posted comments about the attorney I was considering, and then CHOOSE THE ONE WITH THE POSITIVE CUSTOMER REVIEWS. (I am partly to blame for not researching the attorney better before making the decision to hire him. Lesson learned).