Raymond Jefferson Vale

I am a soldier who is currently stationed in Ft. Bliss, TX, who was going through a divorce. Long story short, wife had cheated and was pregnant at the time., left to San Antonio. I went to the post legal office for counsel and was given a list of trusted and known attorney's in the San Antonio area.... when i first spoke to Mr. Vale he seemed very knowledgeable about how the divorce would be handled. The first red flag, should have been when there was conflicting payment issues. At first Mr. Vale had told me a $1,500 retaining fee would be sufficient, his secretaries however started asking me for $2,500. annoyed by this lack of communication i tried calling Mr. Vale to get to the bottom of it. I did not here for Mr. Vale till almost a month later as the court date for the final hearing was fast approaching. I have never had to leave so many messages for a single person in my life, i almost gave up all together on this attorney. Finally about two weeks before the final hearing he calls me back for a very brief conversation and told me he felt confident in getting my monthly commitment to my Ex to be a lot less than the Armies mandated $705 a month. Also, as i mentioned before, my Ex at the time was pregnant and the divorce could not proceed without a DNA test being done. To my surprise the child to be born was indeed mine. I was told by Mr. Vale that, since i was paying mandated military spousal/family support that they could not ask for back pay in child support. i was never able to make it to court due to a very difficult chain of command. I had complete faith in Mr. Vale on the day of the hearing, as i kept my phone very near and dear waiting for his call. Finally i receive a call from Mr. Vale, he told me that everything looked great and he got my committed child support, which is considered family support, dropped down "Significantly" was the word he used. He also informed me that there was a very small amount of bask pay for the child support and to not worry i would have no trouble paying it and that the custody was fair and a "Standard Agreement". After that i hung up the phone feeling slightly better about it all, a year long divorce and i just wanted it over and done with. My biggest mistake was trusting this man as my legal council. A "Standard Agreement" in child custody is not at all what i was lead to believe it is. This so called "Standard Agreement" gave me absolutely no rights to my son what so ever. Of course i was responsible for keeping my son on health insurance, i had to provide all the expenses to see my child, if the mother agreed. My spousal/family support, which was converted to child support, dropped "Significantly" from $705 a month to $650 a month. Now with this "Significantly" reduced support also came a small amount of back pay, which was more along the lines of $6,000. I would love to meet a person who believe Six Thousand dollars is "Minor back pay". To this day i have tried contacting Mr. Vale over and over again, simply put the man is avoiding me and refuses to answer for how sloppy and unprofessional he is or was. My son is now almost Three years old, i have only seen him two times since he was born, partly because i have no rights, no money, and the mother has all the rights. Since i used Mr. Vale as my attorney i have been medically discharged from the Army, transition can be hard enough on its own, even without the looming repercussions that come along with hiring this man. Since we last spoke i have filed for bankruptcy, i lost my home, i have no relationship with my child, i owe over $8,000 in child support because i will never be able to catch up. I am paying child support equivalent to two or three children, which is hard to do unemployed. I truly believe all this pain and misery could have been avoided if i had been informed of the type of attorney this man is. I have spoken with legal about not referring this man to anymore soldiers. I only hope to save someone else from my experience