Kelly Ann Booth

Kelly Ann Booth

I started my solo law practice in 2009, and Tom's case was one of the first cases I ever agreed to take at my firm. It was a collection case where Tom alleged that a business associate whom he had consigned flooring, had actually sold the flooring without paying Tom. I worked the case hard in the beginning and was able to obtain default judgments against many of the alleged defendants, of which there was nearly half a dozen. Once we got the judgments, however, we could not find any assets to collect. This was obviously, and understandably upsetting to Tom. We tried and tried our best to collect, but ran into road blocks. In May of 2011, my husband suffered a brain aneurysm, and so for the next five weeks I was at the hospital 24/7. Thereafter, the recovery was very difficult. My practice suffered immensely and it took my over a year to get it back on track. As a solo attorney, I did not have the backing of a large firm or other attorneys to pick up my work. I had a very busy practice when his aneurysm struck, and I did everything I could to keep my head above water. I actually told Tom that I could not keep representing him because of the fallout from my husband's illness, and he tried to hire another attorney to do the collection, to no avail, despite the fact that there were valid judgments to collect. Tom begged me to take his case again, and I relented and agreed because I felt bad for him. During the time I was out of the office dealing with my husband's anuerysm, Tom had asked me to help him with another minor collection, in small claims court. I delegated that task, and was told by the associate I had handle it, that we were granted a default judgment. I relayed that information to Tom without verifying its accuracy for myself. I never lied to Tom or intentionally misled him, but I did not discover the error until much later. At the Bar disciplinary proceedings, I was offered the option to accept a much less sever discipline if I would name the employee who told me we had a judgment, but I instead accepted the harsher punishment because at the end of the day, it was my law firm, and the buck stops with me. I accepted full responsibility for the error, and it has been a very difficult time for me professionally as I have had to endure the public criticism of an error that happened nearly 7 years ago. Today, I am a partner in a law firm, Bautista Booth Parkinson, and I have worked hard to ensure that the errors I made when tragedy hit my family never happen again. My law partner Rudy Bautista is hands down one of the best criminal defense attorneys in the State. It is an honor to be his law partner, and we have created a law firm that has built a strong reputation for excellence. Finally, I want to make sure that people who read this review understand one thing: I NEVER CHARGED TOM A DIME TO REPRESENT HIM. I took his case on contingency, which means that I agreed that I would not get paid unless we recovered money for him. When I had my family difficulties, I even agreed to reduce my percentage significantly. Tom repeatedly offered to pay me money, and I ALWAYS declined. I honestly tried my best for him! And, because of the process AVVO has created, we do not have the ability to verify the identity of the person whom posted this review. In candor, it does not sound like the Tom I knew and worked with for years on his case. I have represented literally thousands of clients, the vast majority of whom are very satisfied with our representation. Because of these two negative reviews, we will be reaching out to past clients and inviting them to post a review so you can get accurate information about our firm. Being an attorney is tough. we help people who have been charged with a crime and had their lives uprooted. The pressure is immense. We get up everyday and fight for our clients. We don't always hit home runs. But we rarely lose, and if we go down, we go down swinging for our clients.