Stephanie E Lake

So, the person who owns this law firm, and is the primary attorney, is abusing people with disabilities and treating them like second class citizens. She yells at them, tells them to shut up, mocks them, is late or sometimes doesn't show up for court dates, lost cases because she wasn't prepared, sen...t one client's personal information to the wrong person, she sent her mother to represent a client in court because she was to busy, and apparently her mom showed up smelling like booze. She lies to clients, ghosts them for months, sometimes years, you know, good lawyer type stuff, right? The list goes on and on. She also has a temper. I have experienced her rage via phone, and it's nuts. And apparently that's a normal thing for her. She seems unhinged. It's scary to me that she can even be taking these kinds of cases. She shouldn't be dealing with people with disabilities, or anyone for that matter. And especially not with something so important. This is life or death for some people. The last resort. She is dangerous to people who are depending on her and she doesn't care. She takes cases and then does no work on them, and then never updates the clients. She gets hostile anytime anyone asks for an update. She was doing nothing on my case for 4.5 years, and I had no idea. Other than today and yesterday, I hadn't spoken to them since September of 2023. She was my Attorney, up until today. She fired me as a Client because I questioned how she runs her business. I called her out on it and she fired me as a client on the spot, and then hung up. After 4.5 years, I have nothing.

Almost 3 years and I have talked to this attorney twice, I filed for ssdi myself per her request , I did all the leg work, I made all the copies and sent copies to her office AND social security finally contacted me because some of the paperwork that they requested from her never was sent AFTER I TOO...K IT TO HER OFFICE MYSELF they never sent it to social security. Then in my reconsideration I got a letter from SSI that they had sent letters and called and left messages for one Justin So&So supposedly someone at her law firm who was handling my case and had not heard back from him could I please call them, before I called them I called her law firm and asked the lady who answered the firm who this guy was and she told me that he no longer works there and hadn't been there for almost a year. WHAT?! I called ssi and talked to my case worker and she said that they had been sending letters and calling and leaving messages with NO response for over 6 months thats why they contacted me directly and that Stephanie lakes office should have notified them as soon as that attorney was no longer handleling my case and SHE DIDN'T. So for the last 3 months I have been dealing with ssi myself . A lady from ssi contacted me January 20 and asked me some questions and Approved or awarded me ssi right then and there unfortunately they did not determine that I had become disabled until DECEMBER of 2020 so I wasn't going to receive any back pay... Which I had become disabled back in May of 2018 and that's when I filed. when I called Stephanie lakes office and told them what had happened STEPHANIE LAKE HERSELF CALLED ME BACK HOURS LATER AND WAS PISSED AND RUDE and when I Became angry AND RUDE BACK her attitude changed very quick like.. Today I got a letter in the mail congratulating me on winning PART of my case and that I would be receiving a bill from her office for litigation costsas per our contract ... NOTHING in the copy of my contract says anything about LITIGATION only that there may be extra fee applied if they had to make copies and things like that but would not total more then about $300 ... Ya good luck with that I have consulted with another attorney and gathered all my evidence and he said I have a very strong case against her if I decide to hire him he would gladly take my case. Thinking strongly about it... also I asked her office several time if someone could explain the whole Disability process time and time again or asked if they had a booklet that I could read because I had NO CLUE how that whole process works AND NOTHING.

Stephanie Lake is very unethical, whether your case is a winner, in appeals or have lost, you should be treated with respect. She has hung up in my face while I was asking about the appeals process. This attorney needs to learn to leave the conversation on a positive note and allow her clients to ke...ep their dignity she has no empathy for no one and is very unprofessional, I definitely wouldn't recommend her services to no one.