Christopher Joseph Lauria

I had the pleasure of hiring Christopher Lauria to handle my eviction matter in rent controlled City of West Hollywood. I was well organized, had all my paperwork together and filed my own response, relieving him of this obligation. I simply needed his expertise on my strategy to fight the unlawful... eviction and the many flaws found in my 3-day notice. Everything went fine, he allowed me to pay half of my fees up front. On the night before the hearing, I receive a call from Mr. Lauria stating he would NOT be joining me at my hearing the next day as we agreed to but his partner would cover for him. I never met his partner, had no rapport with him and was a bit distressed by this. Mr. Lauria also began back pedaling on our strategy, which he said was solid prior to the hearing. He claimed he doesn't, know can go either way. i reiterated to him all the flaws that both the State of California and City of West Hollywood claim make a flawed 3 day notice. As it turns out, Mr. Lauria has a prior engagement in DTLA and my hearing was in Santa Monica. Mr. Lauria knew of this hearing date at least a week before so why this other hearing was such a surprise caused me concern. I hired Mr. Lauria, not his partner. I meet his partner at the court house and he stopped answering his phone as I tried to contact him on my way there. I then could NOT find his partner as they began to call the cases. Since I was not able to find my attorney, I had to sign a document relieving my hired attorney the right to represent me and I would do it myself. All this time, his partner is not answering the phone but he finally appears. He begins to question our strategy but says he will manage it. This is now causing me undue stress, I believed we had this buttoned up and now I have a new unknown player representing me and my housing situation is now on the line. He meets with opposing counsel, they dismiss the case and as we approach the clerk the clerk states the agreement is invalid. Mr. Lauria's partner did not submit paperwork which allowed him the right to represent me. He was aware of what I had did and had the form in his hand. This means the agreement made with the opposing attorney is now invalid and we are back to where we started. It is me, Mr. Lauria's partner, opposing counsel and the court clerk standing together and I am thinking I am screwed. Opposing counsel stated she waived her right to reinstate judgement and basically did Mr. Lauria's partner a favor by allowing him this slip up. I was then chastised by Mr. Lauria's partner for doing changing representation even though I had every right to as it appeared to me he was not at the court to represent me. All of this was unnecessary if Mr. Lauria had followed through with his commitment to me. I hired HIM and HIS expertise, not to spend an hour on the phone with the two of them the night before to go through everything AGAIN for his partner. Unbelievable. Mr. Lauria is somewhat knowledgeable of Rent Control laws for City of West Hollywood, so if your case is in West Hollywood I recommend finding an Attorney who knows West Hollywood rent control law inside and out, he can mean you winning or losing the case and your home.

Mr. Lauria is the best attorney in the city of Los Angeles when it comes to rent control, and landlord tenant issues. When the opposition sees that the attorney for the plaintiff or defendant is Mr. Lauria, they know that they do not stand a chance. He is extremely professional, knowledgeable, and is... the hardest working Lawyer you will ever find. He never gives up until justice is served, and is an overall great human being. He is very well known among other attorneys, and has a very good reputation. Unfortunately he doesn't receive the recognition he deserves yet but hopefully he will. He deserves it.