Justin James Dertinger

This was, without question, the worst experience I have ever had with a law firm. I hired Justin Dertinger at Plunk Smith to help with a serious and time-sensitive real estate matter. I was the lender and held the second-position lien/deed of trust on the property. I was trying to exercise my f...oreclosure rights against the borrower/property owner. The biggest problem was not a disagreement over legal strategy. It was simply trying to get my attorney to communicate with me and move a time-sensitive matter forward. On June 22, I emailed Justin asking him to investigate the property and foreclosure situation. When I did not receive a substantive response, I contacted the firm’s office manager on June 24 and asked her to get the message to him. She confirmed that she forwarded it. By July 2, I was so frustrated that I emailed the office manager again and specifically told her that I had been trying to get hold of Justin for almost two weeks. She apologized and told me she would check with Justin and his paralegal. On July 7, Justin finally responded that he was “looking into this and will report back shortly.” That substantive response still did not come. On July 13, I became frustrated enough that I asked Justin to refer me to another attorney who actually had time to handle my work. I also reached out to Court Smith, the president of the firm, because I was trying to get someone to help me get the matter handled. Instead of the situation being resolved, I was essentially routed back to Justin, and I was right back where I started. By July 31, I was calling the office again. Justin’s own email acknowledges that I had called. He told me that the attorneys at the firm were “all very busy” and apologized because “it has taken me a while,” explaining that he had been prioritizing matters with fixed deadlines. The extraordinary part is that my matter also involved deadlines and foreclosure rights. I was the second-position lienholder trying to foreclose on the party that owed me money. Because of the delays, my ability to protect my financial interest through foreclosure was put at serious risk. We came dangerously close to missing the opportunity to take the foreclosure action I was trying to pursue. Even after all of that, I gave Justin another opportunity. On July 31, I sent him a detailed summary of the entire matter, told him to proceed immediately, gave him the relevant information and documents, and specifically requested a substantive update by noon Monday. I never received another email response from him. I understand attorneys are busy. I have no expectation that an attorney return every call immediately. But when I am the lender holding a second-position lien and I am trying to preserve my foreclosure rights against a defaulting party, I should not have to repeatedly email my attorney, call the office, contact the office manager, have the office manager contact the attorney and his paralegal, ask for another attorney, contact the president of the firm, and then still struggle to get basic answers. That is completely unacceptable to me. I was eventually able to handle the problem with the help of AI. Ironically, I do have one thing to thank Justin for. This experience frustrated me enough that it pushed me to learn how to use AI extensively for legal research, document review, organization, drafting, and understanding my own legal matters. I now know that AI can do much of the work an attorney can do, and in some respects, it can do even more. Based on my personal experience, if communication, responsiveness, and attention to deadlines are important to you, I cannot recommend Justin Dertinger or Plunk Smith.