Wendy Nicole Villafana

I strongly advise potential clients to be extremely cautious when dealing with attorney Wendy Villafaña. My experience was deeply negative: she demanded excessive payments beyond the original agreement, failed to provide proper copies of legal filings, and ultimately abandoned my case, leaving me ...unrepresented in immigration court. Communication from her office was unprofessional and disrespectful. Instead of supporting me in such a critical process, I was pressured for more money and received threats of withdrawal. In my opinion, this conduct is unethical and harmful to clients who trust her with their immigration matters. I am currently submitting a formal complaint to the Board of Professional Responsibility regarding her misconduct.

I went to Wendy V Villafana in May of 2012 for an uncontested divorce. Since then I have had so much stress put on my back. She DOES NOT KEEP IN TOUCH with me, she DOES NOT GIVE ME INFORMATION on my case, she HAS REFUSED NUMEROUS TIMES to give me a copy of my file & she DOES NOT HAVE A SINGLE PARALE...GAL working for her. I hired her for $1000.00 and paid her $500 to start and was supposed to pay another $500 when my divorce was final. And over the phone she asked me to pay her a retainer fee of $500 @ $125 an hour to cover expenses of phone calls to talk to her secretary Debbie, five months into the case...She said, "Quote" (Simply because she could not get a response from the plaintiffs lawyer, she named it "contested divorce"). From the beginning she should have explained the whole process and followed up on my case which she didn't. August 2012 came around and the plaintiff still had not been legally Summoned.. And I had to have a heated argument with Debbie in order for Wendy to take care of that. During that heated argument I said (Wendy has not done anything in my favor and she is never in the office so I can ask her questions personally) Debbie stated, "quote" (That's not true shes always here and if our client's called the office as much as you did we wouldn't never get anything done.) Soon after that heated argument the plaintiffs lawyer addressed the court with a NOTICE OF APPEARANCE, entered August 29, 2012. During the 30 day period for the plaintiff to respond he was picked up on 9-18-12 by IMMIGRATION and has been detained with NO BOND. Since his deportation was acknowledged, Wendy told me by phone (in her rare moments to get in touch with me only upon my request, and I got a phone call well after office hours, on speaker phone, it sounded as if she and others were laughing at me) on 10-02-12 that she was going to tell the plaintiffs lawyer the following day that we were going to move forward with a MOTION OF DEFAULT JUDGEMENT, and that we would have a court date by "next Friday" 10-12-12.... Instead of the court date I received a letter on 10-09-12 dated 10-05-12 demanding the extra $500 payment by 10-31-12 or she would be forced to withdraw from my case. Wendy only called me I believe a total of four maybe five times during my case. All for visitation in favor of the plaintiff and the last call that I had with her on 10-02-12... Her receptionist' seem uneducated about the law and her secretary Debbie is somewhat knowledgeable but mostly had to "ask Wendy and call me back". Which not ONE TIME called me back when she told me she would, I always winded up calling her back. Wendy was very forgetful about EVERY detail in my case, (DNA TEST, POLICE RECORDS, DRUG TEST, VISITATION AND CHILD SUPPORT) I HAD TO REMIND WENDY AND DEBBIE OF EVERYTHING! That's why I called "so much"... In my opinion VILLAFANA LAW OFFICE failed me in every way possible. Legally (did not follow the lawyers rules of professionalism and ethics) and Emotionally (gave me headaches and anger and stress during and after every conversation) . Since the very beginning I have requested copies of everything in my file. And my response from Debbie was always "quote", (well I have let Wendy know so she can go though everything so she can decide what she wants you to have copies of). Which I still don't have!!!! I felt like she was on the plaintiffs side instead of mine. I felt like it was a race thing because I am Caucasian and she prefers Hispanics. Although she is Caucasian she would always mix up her words and speak to me in Spanish acting as if she were Hispanic. Wendy did not do anything for me but file the paperwork. And she asked for more money! Not a good lawyer at all!