Mark C. Prugh

I have known Attorney Prugh for over 13 years. The word “disappointment” does not encompass the total depth of despair I feel about hiring him to represent me during a recent legal dispute. During his representation of me (for a case that was supposed to be quick and simple but ended up dragging out ...approximately 2 1/2 years), Attorney Prugh repeatedly showed an unprofessional demeanor. He often confused my case with his other clients, and I am convinced that my case never received the full attention that it rightly deserved. If it had, we would have avoided many of the pitfalls that we encountered due to Attorney Prugh’s indolent and negligent actions. Although I disclosed many critical details and facts throughout to Attorney Prugh—details and facts that were sound and relevant—he failed time and again to present them to the court and they were never addressed. Attorney Prugh made frequent grievous errors, which resulted in much additional work and effort on my part as I frantically tried to provide damage control to the Missouri Child Support Division that I would have never had to provide had it not been for the inattentive actions of my attorney. Also, after charging me an additional $5,000 on top of what I had already paid, he made promises to me that were never met, one of the most important being, “I'll get you your attorney fees back and then some.” Needless to say, that was money thrown to the wind that I will never see again. Although I had to take countless hours off work to do so, I attended every court hearing about my case, which allowed me to observe and hear Attorney Prugh and the opposing attorney in action. I was surprisingly and repeatedly appalled and disappointed as I witnessed my case rapidly go downhill at an alarming speed. I trusted Attorney Prugh as my legal counsel, but I received harmful, less-than-mediocre legal services from him in return. I believe that I was swindled out of thousands of dollars and that I was totally misrepresented—simply because he never took the time to become familiar with anything about my case. He regularly relied on what he called a “Matrix” to help “refresh” his memory, which I can assure you never “refreshed” anything adequately. Attorney Prugh’s legal performance was so damaging that I decided to write the presiding judge a letter, which I hand-delivered to the clerk myself. When I attempted (on several occasions) to inform Attorney Prugh of my concerns, he began placing the blame on me (the client). I recently left an online review about him (the first that I have ever written), and later that same day, I received a threatening voice mail message from him, telling me that he was now free to post any observations that he has of me, both personally and professionally, ending his message with, “and believe me, I won’t hold back.” He told me that I had two days to contact him, but that “appropriate action would be taken regardless.” This only reaffirmed my opinions of Attorney Prugh’s unprofessionalism, unethical conduct, and abuse of legal authority. KLW - Dissatisfied Client!!!