Andrew John Helmes

This is the firm that Legalshield assigned my traffic citation to. Communication was nearly non-existent, and what communication there was usually was not clear. It appeared that Legalshield was not going to cover the full amount of the attorney fees. So, I told two different attorneys at this f...irm that I would represent myself. Meanwhile, I attend the hearing to enter a “not guilty” plea only to find out this firm entered the plea for me but didn’t tell me until they called the following day. So, I made an unnecessary trip to court. At this point, I simply figured that they had already entered my plea before I told them I would be representing myself. This was not the case. My court date was on a Monday. On the Friday before in the afternoon, I received a call from the attorney telling me he would be in court and asking me to return his call to provide some information. I was also told that he would work with the prosecutor on negotiating a guilty plea. I returned the call later that afternoon and left voice mail. Notably, I tried to clear up if they were getting paid by Legalshield because I thought they weren’t, whether they were in fact representing me, and also mentioned that I was pleading “not guilty” as we had previously discussed because I had good indication that the witness would not show up in court. I told him if they hadn’t been paid that I had no intention of paying them. I did not want to be surprised with a bill from this firm. I asked for a return call to confirm their appearance in court so I would be prepared for court if they weren’t going to show up. My call was not retuned. I followed this up with several voice messages and emails on Sunday so I had something in writing if they tried to bill me. Court date comes. The attorney shows up and talks to me so briefly out in the hall that the conversation was useless. It was clear from this conversation and what few we had over the phone before that he had a hazy recollection of what we talked about and was not prepared. He still intended to plead “guilty” and try to work out a deal. I would have been OK up to this point. However, since I didn’t know for sure if I was going to be represented I took matters into my own hands and took some actions to bring about an outcome that was favorable to me. Without going into detail what I did, the attorney admonished me for my action and talked down to me like I was some little kid. I thought this was very unprofessional and uncouth. Who was working for who? Here this guy was going to change my plea to guilty. Because of my own actions, I got the ticket dismissed. I didn’t even need this guy.