Paula Roark Cundiff

Horrible representation. My case was an assault causes bodily injury. I went to get a female who was telling me she was scared because her ex was putting his hands on her. Had video of the girl saying she’s sorry she made me come there and she’d tell the cops I was there to help. On top of that also ...kept all the texts of her asking me to come help. Even have texts afterwards from the female stating she didn’t know what exactly happened just wanted to know what did. The girl got arrested that night for PI. And the guy didn’t have severe damages he had bruises, as well did I. Pictures of me sent to Paula as well. Was nothing crazy, just me coming to a females aid and then knocking on a door to get the guy out of her apartment and he attacked me and I defended myself. We fought, no bones were broken; no fractures, just a fight, a fight where I defended myself. With all that evidence all she wanted me to do was take a plea. I didn’t want to do that because I did what any guy would do if a girl you cared about was getting beat. During that time I got another case. A felony which was burglary of habitation. So the misdemeanor case that Paula was handling had to be put on hold until the felony case was taken care of first. I was proven innocent in the burglary of habitation and it was no billed and dropped. So the misdemeanor came back into play. Paula did not show up for the first court date. Judge asked me if I had contacted her, I said yes, but she sent me an invoice for the same case I had already paid her for. Was confused about that because I haven’t been in court all my life. What my previous lawyer informed me on was, “why did you hire a divorce attorney for a criminal case?” I explained to him, “this was the first case I’ve dealt with since I was 21 (30 about to be 31 now) so I just hired the first lawyer I heard of.” After letting the judge know I couldn’t get ahold of her, I’m assuming that they did because the next day I got an email with a motion to withdrawal on the terms of “she is effectively unable to communicate with the client.” When I reached out to her a numerous of times. Makes no sense. To top it all off, she made me use all of my resets. The judge said I can’t reschedule anymore so I’ll have to take a plea or go to trial. Hired another attorney, spent a lot of money on Paula for absolutely nothing. And the first thing my new lawyer asked (who is a criminal attorney) was did your other lawyer ever tell you about the guy that you have an assault charge with (keep in mind I only went because she said she was scared) is on felony probation? One of his charges are for strangling the girl you went to protect. Paula never EVER told me that. Paula left my high and dry, by myself in a courtroom after paying her. Then after the court reached out to her withdrawals representation. I never leave bad reviews because I’m not that type of person, but after paying $600+ (not sure of the exact amount I know it’s higher then that I just don’t want to say the wrong amount and have false accusations) that’s not right whatsoever. She should’ve told me she’s not a criminal lawyer. She should’ve contacted me and let me know she can’t do this. But instead I was in a court room from 8:30 till 12:30 wondering what’s gonna happen. Just wish she would’ve told me something instead of just emailing me invoices, or emailing me withdrawals that are irrelevant because I called the office, I called her personal phone. I wasn’t lacking communication, she just cut me off and took her money, that’s not right.