Patrick Louis Cusma

I hired Pat Cusma, along with my brother and sister, to help us obtain heirlooms that were rightfully ours, after our stepmother passed away. This was the situation: Our stepmother passed away in January. Our dad passed away 12 years ago. My sister had been named executor of the estate prior to our D...ad’s passing. About five years ago, our stepmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. We attempted to stay in touch with her. After several years, we were told by our stepmother’s DIL not to contact her anymore because she didn’t recognize us and it scared her to receive phone messages from us. Then our stepbrother and his wife sold the home and kept all the proceeds from the sale for themselves. As we later discovered, our stepmother changed the will to make her son the executor. Most of the estate was brought into the marriage by our dad, including heirlooms and valuable, meaningful collections we knew he wanted his kids to have. Our stepbrother took everything that was our dad’s, without returning anything to us. We didn’t even know our dad had his own will and that there had been a reading. We hired Pat to write a letter on our behalf insisting certain items be returned to us. Initially, my sister contacted him about our situation. He told her he would write a letter, for a charge of $50, stating that he was working on our behalf and to return specific items to us. Several weeks after this conversation, I took over the effort. I contacted Pat and he agreed he would write a letter listing the items we wanted and that, as our attorney, was willing to take any steps necessary on our behalf. Although money was not an issue, this time he quoted me $150–not $50. That was fine. So I emailed a list of the items we wanted back. After four weeks of no communication from Pat by phone or email, my sister finally reached him to find out what was happening. After that, he sent us a draft of the letter. It was almost verbatim what I sent him. It was also riddled with inaccuracies and grammatical errors, which I corrected. I essentially wrote the letter myself. I emailed it back to Pat. Another month passed with no communication. Finally, my brother reached him. Pat said if he did not hear from our stepbrother in two weeks, Pat would call him. Over the next several months, my brother tried to reach Pat numerous times to find out what was going on. When my brother finally reached him, Pat claimed he and our stepbrother were playing phone tag. This process dragged out FOR SEVEN MONTHS. The urgency was quickly dying. We didn’t even have proof that Pat sent a letter. He said he tried to call our stepbrother during work hours when, of course, no one was home. At my brother’s suggestion to call our stepbrother in the evening or the weekend, Pat said he wouldn’t do that. The few times we actually reached Pat to talk to him, he’d tell each of us a different story. Long story short, we had no proof that Pat had done anything he said he would. He also gave conflicting information to each of us at different times. He was completely incommunicative and ineffective. We never rec’d a statement of intent from him or a downpayment request. We had no evidence he had actually done anything on our behalf. The urgency was gone. At this point, our stepbrother could have easily sold everything. I feel like Pat screwed us out of any opportunity to get our heirlooms back. Now, if we have any shot at all, assuming the items haven’t already been sold or pawned, we are starting from square one. I’m absolutely beside myself with anger. A simple, “I don’t have time to help you with this right now” would have sufficed. I could have found another lawyer to help us. I feel sick to my stomach that our father’s possessions are in the hands of two people who could care less about them. DO NOT USE PAT CUSMA. He is incommunicative, ineffective and nonresponsive, at best. At worst, he never had our best interests at heart. We lost any chance to obtain our dad’s heirlooms.

Mr cusma showed up to court for me unprepared. During trail he kept asking me what questions I wanted to ask. I asked him prior to give a offer to my ex wife and he never did. The biggest issue I had was the lie that cost me my case. He told me he filed my appeal and didn't. The court would not let... me appeal after deadline. These are my facts. I did file with discipline committee but they said he didn't violate code of ethics.