John R. Goodell

I am in Southern California and due to jurisdiction, I was forced to hire attorneys in Idaho. We came to them with an already written case and strategy, since we had already filed in California. The case was so well written that it actually made Courthouse News Service Headline News, again before we ...came to them for help. Was completely misled on what this would cost. Was told only $2000 initially, however ended up getting charged more than ten times that amount, which they did not remotely deserve and also grossly misled on their "expertise". They purposely set out to significantly lengthen the process unnecessarily in order to line their pockets as soon as they saw that our "writ of attachment" strategy, which they had never used, was approved by the Judge and they saw $150,000 held on the Defendant's bank account (which they doubted the Judge would approve and also doubted the money would actually be there). Ultimately, I had to hire outside counsel to fix their clear mistakes and counter their siding with the people we were suing, which was preposterous. I even had to do the final negotiating with opposing counsel myself, which took weeks of me working directly with opposing counsel, but I finally got the job done myself because these people were ineffective and basically just shuffling papers. This man and his "firm" did not remotely deserve the exorbitant "pulled out of a hat fees" he claimed were owed for "his work." Due to their clear lack of expertise, I did not remotely get anywhere near the $150K that they should have easily gotten. Their clear lack of foresight and gross mismanagement of this case was significantly detrimental and John Goodell was forcing me to take a $17K settlement and at the same time telling me I owed him 30K for his so called "services". He spent more time sending me angry emails about not settling for the 17K than ever actually sending at least one strategic, evidentiary email to opposing counsel. We had significant evidence against the Defendant - yet not even 1 strategic, leveraging email to opposing counsel was ever sent. Not one email sent on our behalf defending us recapping evidence and defending us. I will be absolutely be reporting him to the State Bar. This would never fly out here in California. The State Bar claims most people get intimidated by the system and do not report wrongdoings by these "Attorneys" and that is why many have "spotless" reputations. Well, as John Goodell has heard many times - We are not those people and will be filing a full detailed report. It is clear this "Firm" was desperate for business and honed in on my case, since we literally handed the case to them on a silver platter. Ultimately, since I had to get involved myself after they had clearly set me up to fail, I got the settlement significantly improved - and these ineffective jerks charged me $23K that again they did NOT remotely deserve.