I hired Joshua Eldredge at the beginning of December, apprising him of the difficulty of this case. My husband was very controlling, and abusive, and would fight us on every point. He said he was very confident he could handle it. Mid December I warned him my husband had moved out, and that he threatened to take my car and possessions, and put our house up for sale. I emailed, called, and texted my concerns, telling him exactly where and when to serve him, but things seemed to be dragging out badly.
Joshua knew my husband had drained all of our money from our accounts and hired an attorney in October, and had an agenda unknown to me. I had to pay on credit. I told Joshua I had planned on leaving out of state for the holiday's for two weeks, and I wanted him to be served by then, as I was worried about leaving my property and house, and I wanted some kind of order in place saying he couldn't take my things. I even called him from my layover in Denver to try to reach him again before taking off, begging him to get the paperwork done and serve him. After arriving, I called or texted, and left messages every day to find out if he'd been served, but didn't even get an acknowledgment of my communication. He called once to say he needed a form filled out to file the petition, and I gave him the information in 5 minute, and again, the petition was supposed to be served before I returned. When I returned from my trip on January 6th, there was a lockbox on my door, with no notice from anyone. I called the realtor to take it off, and called and emailed Josh, once again not able to reach him. Again, I told him I needed the petition filed, as he would my husband would be very angry I had the lock box taken off, but still nothing happened. On Sunday, January 10th, my husband stole my car from a church parking lot after I entered, than proceeded along with several coworkers/friends, to strip the house I had possession of, of everything valuable. Big screen t.v. AND mount were taken off the wall, huge sectional couch, and all of our other possessions acquired during the marriage, and 1/2 of my personal possessions from before the marriage were gone. The snowblower was gone, during one of the heaviest snowfalls in years, and I was left with my boys to dig out 3 feet of snow to get out of our driveway each day.
The police were called to both places, but said they couldn't do anything as it was a domestic issue. I was told the next day my husband sold the car, and put the rest in storage. Joshua spent the next week trying to get the opposing attorney to accept the service, and she said she would, but his trust was put in the wrong person, and she never confirmed the service, so any motion we tried to file after that would be denied because they needed proof of service of the petition for divorce first. Joshua finally told me opposing attorney emailed proof of service, but when I checked a week ago, there was still nothing filed with the court showing proof of service.
So, again, nothing has been achieved to make my case go forward, yet I received a bill on January 12 saying most of my $2500 retainer was gone, and I needed to deposit another $3000 to keep him working on my case. Joshua knew I had limited resources, and was counting on a temporary order. Within a day I was sent a contract for services, they apparently forgot to have me sign. I was horrified when I read in the contract that I was expected to know all important dates in my case, and make sure no filings were missed, even repeatedly calling or visiting the office to make sure everything was in order = (more money)
WHAT!!!!!
I hired an attorney so I didn't have to do that.
Now I'm starting from behind correcting the errors made in the petitions myself, so a new attorney can take over.
I wrote him a letter citing my disappointment last week, and he hasn't even responded.
I've had several attorneys in my life.
THIS ONE WAS A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! :(
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Response from Joshua Eldredge May 9, 2016
Toni,
I am deeply sorry for the difficult situation your husband put you in. I did everything in my power to represent you to the best of my ability. However, your review is unfair because almost all of it is factually inaccurate or twisted to come across negatively. I have sent you an email giving you a line by line break down as to the factual inaccuracies of your review and asked you to please take it down. As you can see by the positive reviews I've received by other clients of mine, as well as the fact that in 2015 I received the award, "Top Ten Client Satisfaction Award for Utah," and then being nominated for that same award in 2016, and also receiving the Client Satisfaction designation from this very website(AVVO), my clients are very happy with the work I perform for them.
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