Jacob Russell Caddas

We were super excited after meeting Caddas, he was FULL of enthusiasm and promised us the moon and said we will make them pay (jail time) for illegally keeping your child from you. But after receiving payment for retainer he said i'm not doing any of that, lost all enthusiam for the case and focused ...on the wrong part of the claim.( parenting instead of assests.) Before hiring we told him to call whenever possible, it was alot cheaper! Instead he emailed 1 word or 1 sentence emails to us and opposing counsel when it was not necessary, a phone call would've sufficed. (Thank you, got it, recieved the item, I'm starting on this if you have any questions) He had no respect for us, didn't care how we felt or what we wanted. He was so distracted that he never started on our other part of the claim, it was a simple subpoena to further our accepted motion. Instead he never did anything with it, then was denied by the courts because nothing else was filed. We are a few years later and I am stuck paying for another attorney to fix his mistakes. Now I have time against me because he didn't pay enough attention to our case and missed important details and documents. The other thing that bothered us was he was enthusiastic and compassionate and really wanted to make the other party pay for their contempt and fraud. Once the petitioner retained counsel he was buddy buddy with them and his entire tone changed. From my understanding opposing counsel and caddas were friends, always communicating and billing us for it. My retainer was almost empty, instead of calling us he sent an email and we didn't immediately pay him, we told him we would come meet him next week. After we worked out the settlement offer for parenting, and decide how to proceed with assests, since it was denied from his negligence. While we were working out the settlement with the other party he dropped us and were told after he filled documents with the court. So it was basically $0 maybe -$200 from the emais. He was not part of the settlement; my ex and I worked out a fair negotiation then had her attorney prepaid doxuments to sign. Then two weeks later i was sent a bill of $700 then it was $1200 then it changed to $500. No clear billing and the price kept changing, we did all the work for the settlement all he had to do was sign and submit the settlement and somehow that turned into $1200 then went back down to $500. The one good thing I would have to say is that they were very willing to take a smaller retainer to start services vs the traditional 5k retainer. But now I see why, they knew that they would bill 2-4x what they actually worked and charge for a basic "Thank you email". Very unethical, I have worked with a few attorneys and none of them have ever charged for basic reply, never had changing bills. If you still decide to retain Caddas I recommend getting a more detailed retainer and asking to put communications charges in writing and waiving basic replies as billable. Other than Caddas the law firm itself was very professional, great paralegals but you need to hold their hand and make sure they are following up with your case and filling items in a timely matter. Caddas was a waste of money, I filed all motions that were accepted before I retained counsel. All he did for us was retype up our parenting plan request and organize documents and speak with other party counsel. I could have saved myself alot of money by doing it myself